


A.I.: Re-Genesis

by vala411



Series: THE A.I. SAGA [2]
Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Zombies, Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2020-09-12
Packaged: 2020-09-24 02:04:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 29,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20350567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vala411/pseuds/vala411
Summary: This is the sequel to A.I.: Orphans of Terra and follows the continued adventures of Hiccup, Astrid and the gang as the world is changing. See what awaits our heroes this time.





	1. Chapter 1

**Prologue**

_Earth, the once-great vessel that supported life. The evolution of humans was both its greatest achievement and its greatest downfall. Humanity spread across the Earth and consumed its resources, never stopping to consider that there might soon be no resources left. Always growing and consuming._

_The Earth was left to rot as pockets of humanity fled into space while overpopulation ran rampant. A conspiracy so malicious had taken hold of the planet causing billions to die as only the rich would profit in the end._

_Centuries have passed and the population slowly dwindled. The once evergreen planet had become a wasteland where wars were fought over the last scraps of fertile dirt and supplies. Where children were gaunt and starved. Where the once majestic animals that had populated the planet disappeared and were now only carcasses and bones left to be forgotten in the mighty dunes._

_Yet all of this would change when one youth found a hidden facility. A conspiracy so atrocious was unraveled and the Earth awaited its final judgment as the rocket carrying its future was deployed._

_Would Midas be defeated?_

_Would humanity stand at the pinnacle once again?_

_Would these humans, that have gone through such hardships and despair, learn from the mistakes of their ancestors? Or would they be doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again?_

_The future was uncertain indeed. There was a threat looming from above that no one knew about and there was one from within that could shake the very foundation of the planet quite literally._

_This story resumes………. more than a century later._

Year: 25XX (Somewhere in the 26th century)  
Location: ???????

An old woman sat in a wooden rocking chair in front of a firepit. She was seated on the balcony of her log cabin and looked up into the vast unknown of space. There was pitter-patter from behind her and a dor could be heard sliding open. Blue eyes watched fondly as two children appeared before her shouting “Granny Granny!”

“Now what has you two all hyped up?” The old lady asked as she smoothed out some of her graying hair that had left her bun.

“Granny! You said that you’d tell us how it all ended!” One of the girls leaned forward slightly. The eagerness was shown in the young girl’s eyes.

“I did didn’t I?” The old woman teased as both girls eagerly shouted “Yes!”

“Okay, let’s see……” The old lady thought for a moment. “Hiccup and Terrence, also known as Toothless, were in big trouble. They were running through a valley as the sound of engines and warcries got closer.

“How do you get me into this mess?!” Hiccup shouted as he dragged an already injured Toothless into a cave. “Let’s try and hide in here.” Hiccup suggested as they went further into the darkness.

Shouts of their pursuers could be heard passing by in their vehicles. Dust was kicked up everywhere due to the sand being so loose and Toothless groaned in pain as his abdomen was bleeding again.

Hiccup cursed in Norwegian, something he had picked up from his dad in recent years, as he tried to reapply the makeshift bandage. “Hang in there bud, we’re almost there.”

“You should just leave Hiccup,” Toothless groaned. “I know these guys, they won’t give up.”

“Not after I’ve risked everything to get you back!” Hiccup declared. “Stormfly would have me dangling over a fire naked if I didn’t bring you back!”

“Hiccup you don’t know these guys as I do!” Toothless said as he desperately grabbed Hiccup’s arm. “They will do whatever it takes to get me back! Even bombing this valley!”

Just as Toothless said that several explosions could be heard. “Ah frick!” He groaned more than shouted. The explosions reverberated through the cave and debris started falling down.

Hiccup had to cover his eyes and Toothless’s head as dust and debris was everywhere and when he could see again he cursed even more as he noticed that the cave entrance had collapsed.

They were without light, injured and running out of air. The future was grim and Hiccup’s regret right now was that he didn’t tell Astrid he loved her before departing on this rescue mission.

“NOOOOOOOO!!!” The two girls who were listening shouted causing the old woman to wince for a bit.

“Hiccy and Toothy can’t die!” The young girl on the right exclaimed as her pigtails swished. The other girl who’s hair was in a braid added: “And granny you didn’t start where you left off!”

“I didn’t?” The old woman pondered. “Then where did I leave off last night?”

“The rocket!” Both girls exclaimed. “We want to know what happens next!”

“Oh dear, I do suppose I skipped quite a bit.” The grandmother laughed. “Alright, let’s see. From when the rocket launched. We’ll skip to five years later when the story gets really interesting.”

**AN: This story will officially start on August 31st with updates each weekend afterwards.**


	2. Chapter 2

  
**Chapter 1**

_Year: 24XX (5 years after terraformation)_   
_ Location: Earth, Berk (Formally Arcadia)_

The Earth was still a wasteland but it was slowly turning green once more. Hiccup sat on a cliff overlooking the valley where Arcadia was built underneath. The water that was murky green years ago from toxins and pollution now ran crystal clear through the valley. Weeds were flourishing creating something of a Savana, while saplings that the Berkians had started planting were growing strong over the years. The roots of those new trees would hold for many more years to come.

In the five years that Hiccup had been living at Arcadia, now called Berk after their old place of origin, he’d seen many things. The rocket that was launched five years ago was both a frightening and joyous event for mankind. It had worked, Astrid’s intervention had worked. The rains containing the nanobots fell back to Earth and the little robots went to work. They broke down plastics, polymers, radioactive material that had simply been dumped by people of the past that had stopped caring. Hiccup wondered if the people of the past had ever really cared about this planet at all. But the most wonderous thing the nanobots did was cure Midas. No one could believe it at first, not until a woman down south found out she had gotten pregnant.

Babies had been something of a myth then. Hiccup had been one of the last generations to be born before Midas wreaked its ugly head and made people completely infertile. So the news spread fast. Stories of the Berkians living in Arcadia had already spread through many tribes but they were considered just tall tales. Now with women becoming pregnant, it was a whole other story.

The Berkians, along with The Dragons that had joined them a couple of years ago, had done wonders. The area around Arcadia was flourishing with flora and fauna. Animals were being cloned at a rate that would not damage the ecosystems and released into the wild. Astrid herself was strictly monitoring their populations and today was such a day that Hiccup was waiting anxiously for.

“Hiccup you there?” Came over the communicator that was in Hiccup’s ear.

“I’m here,” Hiccup said as he recognized Toothless’ voice.

“Well get your butt over here. Astrid says it’s time.” The man told Hiccup with an exasperated sigh. “Just were are you anyways?”

“Just at the ridge. I’ll be there in ten minutes tops.” Hiccup answered before getting up and walking towards the ATV he had parked beneath the shade of a rock outcrop. Hiccup stepped on the gas and made his way towards Arcadia. The underground facility itself had changed over the years. It was no longer invisible. Guard posts and watchtowers stood at its edges as well as a cordoned off area where the Berkians slept during shift changes. Most of the Berkians still lived in the facility itself but some wanted to live above ground.

The watchtowers and the guard rotations were needed now, mainly because Astrid’s revival caused somewhat of a security malfunction. Arcadia was no longer able to monitor its borders completely and dispatch intruders freely. The system that now governed the facility wasn’t nearly as advanced as Astrid, rudimentary at best, and required all hands on deck from the Berkians to operate it.

Hiccup parked the ATV and saw Fishlegs waiting for him in the large garage.

“Fish why aren’t you with the others?” Hiccup asked with a frown as he limped on his metal prosthetic leg towards his friend.

“Toothless, Ruff and Astrid are going gaga over them,” Fishlegs mumbled. “They rarely pay attention to the guys then.”

“Right……” Hiccup laughed and the duo walked towards the laboratories.

There were a lot more Berkians and Dragons in this area now after five years. Many picked up the research materials that were left behind quickly and tried their best at helping restore the ecosystem. Ellie Larson, Gustav’s mother, had become their head and reported the progress directly to Stoick. She seemed to have a knack for the sciences and was more comfortable in a lab than wasteland even though she could shoot just as well.

“Hiccup there you are!” Astrid, who now wore her hair in a long braid downwards, uttered as she caught sight of him and Fishlegs. “They’re about to come out!” She tugged Hiccup’s hand and gestured to the cloning tubes that were lined up.

Approximately twenty to thirty tubes were active. “I can’t believe it,” Astrid was giddy. She always was when they managed to clone a new animal for release. More so with this one as this particular animal had some problems during the process.

“I don't get it,” Snotlout muttered as he leaned against the opposite wall. “They’re just some birds.”

“Actually they aren’t just some birds Snot,” Fishlegs said as he was about to go in his lecture mode. “The Spix's macaw, known scientifically as Cyanopsitta spixii or more commonly known as the Little Blue macaw was declared extinct in the wild around the early 21st century. They were completely extinct a few years later. This macaw has a wingspan ranging from 9 to 12 inches long. It was highly sought after but human deforestation caused it to become endangered.”

“Why the hell would humans endanger a bird they liked?” Snotlout questioned as he didn’t get it.

“Money mostly,” Astrid said as she turned around to look at the two. “The parrot’s diet consists mostly of nuts and seeds but deforestation destroyed a lot of their habitat.”

“Wait…. Were these the trees that you had us mostly plant?” Fishlegs asked.

“The Pinhão and Favela among others, yes. The nanobots are doing a splendid job of maintaining them further. These parrots should have no problem adapting if their food source is near.” Astrid smiled.

“This will be the fifth bird species we are releasing,” Toothless mumbled while looking down at his tablet. “The blue-eyed ground dove and the Tachira Antpitta had some problems adapting in the first year but that seems to be solved now. We had to let the Toucan adapt to the environment before we even began with this bird species,” Toothless added the last sentence as an afterthought.

“Why?” Snotlout asked since he heard it.

“Because the Toucan is responsible for the distribution of nearly 80 percent of the trees needed for the macaw reproduction.” Toothless sighed.

“Guys it is time,” Ellie said as she approached them. She was checking something on the monitors before engaging the last leg of the cloning process. “Remember, they will be weak at first so we should handle them with care.”

The ladies eagerly nodded and the tanks were drained. Hiccup’s foot almost got stepped on as Ruff started cooing over one of the birds that was looking around curiously.

“Oh my Thor just look at them!” Astrid gushed as she and the others approached slowly. The birds were still too weak to fly but they could be startled. One of the Blue macaws looked at the humans while blinking it’s blueish-yellow-ringed eyes and cocking it’s little head curiously. Feathers seemed sticky from the cloning process and were ruffled slightly as the birds started coming to.

“I can’t wait to see them fly!” Ruffnut said eagerly.

Even Toothless took note of the cloned adult birds and remarked “They have Stormfly’s favorite colors. She’d get a kick out of this.”

“She’s returning tonight right?” Hiccup asked and Toothless nodded.

“Yeah, the deligation is supposed to return tonight.” Toothless confirmed. “I just hope she hasn’t stabbed anyone.”

Hiccup nodded as he thought. When the rumors of pregnancies had first started, and later confirmed, Arcadia had been thrown back into the spotlight. News traveled slow but everyone now knew, five years later. The infamy that accompanied the facility had sparked some tribes to become bold and attack. They wanted the technology for themselves and one night they nearly breached Arcadia’s defenses.

Hiccup didn’t think he would be so attracted to violent women up to that point but seeing Astrid rage at the sheer audacity that these people possessed, wanting to take over a facility they had no way of operating, wanting to possibly destroy all the research to revive humanity because of their greed and ambition. Astrid raged and she grabbed one of Stoic’s axes that had been mounted to his office wall before setting the control of Arcadia’s guns to her datapad.

That night had been nearly unforgettable. The Outcasts were not one to back down from battle but when they laid eyes on Astrid in makeshift armor and that giant axe charging into battle, not to mention all the guns aimed at them they wisely withdrew. They were trigger-happy not insane.

It was the technology the Berkians now possessed that kept most at bay but trouble was brewing again. News of tribes forming alliances reached Stoick and he decided it was time to hold a Council. All the tribe leaders would gather at Berk to set the record straight. And Stormfly had been chosen as part of the delegation. They would return tonight with news of all the representatives that would be attending.

**AN: This chapter is largely dedicated to the Little Blue macaw. Not much news has been released about this but the bird species that the movies Rio and Rio 2 had been based on has been declared extinct since last year. The story will develop with some interesting twists and I promise you that no sequel of mine will be half-assed. I normally don't do sequels but this story deserved one and I was feeling evil, :3 So be prepared, my dear readers. You are about to go on a rollercoaster ride. Who knows who will survive after I'm done.**

**AN2: This story will have weekly updates because I will also be working on the last leg of my thesis, my Marvel saga fanfics and 2 Harry Potter fanfics I've been dying to write.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 2**  
  
That night the twins had been playing Jenga, a game they rediscovered a few years back, in the cafeteria. A lot of Berkians were there drinking mead or eating mutton. It was a jolly affair until Ruffnut screamed: “WHAT IN THOR’S NAME TUFFNUT!”

Heads turned towards where the twins were seated to see what was going on. Ruffnut smacked her brother on his head and Tuffnut called out “But the goal of the game is not to make the blocks fall!”

“That doesn’t mean you get to glue the blocks together!” Ruffnut shouted, “Where did you even hide the glue you mutton-head?!” before grabbing Tuffnut by his clothes and trying to take them off.

“Hey, that tickles!” Tuffnut shouted. The Berkians who had been watching turned back to their meal. It was a common occurrence after all.

“Shouldn’t you stop them?” Hiccup asked. He and Fishlegs had gotten some corncobs and when they turned Ruffnut and Tuffnut were fighting on the floor.

“Uhm…… why?” Fishlegs asked.

“Because she’s your girlfriend,” Hiccup raised a brow.

“And that’s exactly why I’m staying out of it,” Fishlegs stated as they continued to watch the brawl. “Remember when Snotlout got in-between one of their fights?” Hiccup shuddered at that question. Of course he remembered, who in Berk wouldn’t. That was also the reason people didn’t leave the twins alone with salt anymore.

“Ah there ya are Hiccup,” Gobber said from behind Hiccup as he gave his godson a near heart attack.

“Gobber don’t do that!” Hiccup exclaimed as he turned around.

“Chief wants to see you. Toothless and Astrid are already in his office.” Gobber informed them as he stole a corncob from Hiccup’s plate.

“Whaa!” Hiccup exclaimed as his godfather hobbled away with the corncob. Gobber had become infatuated with the plant ever since they managed to grow it around two years back. Back then there was a dispute between the Berkians about the plant that even Fishlegs couldn't settle. Everyone was happy when they had a new food staple but then the question began, where do they sort this food? With the vegetables, grains or fruits. It was such a mundane question yet no one knew how to answer it. Heavy debate broke out to which storage warehouse the corn should go to until Astrid settled it for them. Though she was brandishing an axe at the time.

Hiccup still recalled Astrid’s words as she told them to just file it in with the miscellaneous food since it was a vegetable, grain, and fruit at the same time. Her statement caused an uproar within the debating factions and Astrid was asked to elaborate. It was a vegetable because it was harvested for eating, a grain because it is a dry seed belonging to the grass species and a fruit because that was the botanical definition.

Hiccup thought about this as he made his way to his father’s office. He knocked on the door once before entering. When he stepped inside his eyes widened as he saw Toothless struggling as he was held under someone’s arm while having his hair ruffled. “Stormfly!” Hiccup exclaimed as he recognized Toothless’ cousin. “You’re back!”

“Hiccy!” Stormfly shouted as she unceremoniously dropped Toothless onto the floor before grabbing Hiccup and giving him a strong hug. Stormfly had blonde hair that was styled into a pixie cut and she wore self-crafted blue armor with some spikes here and there. Those same spikes were now digging into various parts of Hiccup as he was hugged.

“Stormfly could you maybe not cause my boyfriend to bleed out on the floor?” Astrid asked with an amused smile. Stormfly let go and looked sheepish for a moment before she said “I got a surprise!”

“Please tell me you aren’t raising scorpions again,” Toothless uttered while he picked himself off the floor.

“Noooo…..” Stormfly said as she glared at Toothless. “Some old friends of you guys came back with me,”

“Old friends?” Hiccup blinked as he stared at Stormfly with a confused look. His eyes widened when Stoick came out of the adjoining room followed by Ingvar and Taavi. The Chief of the Northlander tribe and his son greeted everyone. Taavi, ten-year-old that he now seemed to be, tackled Hiccup in a hug.

“Big bro!” Taavi was quite enthusiastic as he hugged Hiccup.

“Hey, don’t I get some love too?” Toothless pouted.

“Don’t get your undies in a bunch old man!” Taavi teased and then laughed at Toothless’ dumbfounded look.

“Hey wait, I’m not an old man!” Toothless defended.

“Could have fooled me,” Stormfly snorted which earned her another glare.

“You guys, what are you doing here so early? I thought you were going to arrive in two days with the other delegations.” Hiccup questioned.

“We decided to hitch a ride with Stormfly and the others. Taavi couldn’t keep sitting still when he heard we were going to visit.” Ingvar laughed.

“Hiccup! Hiccup! You know what Stormfly said on the way here?!” Taavi exclaimed and just as he was about to blurt it out a hand covered his mouth.

“It was nothing important!” Stormfly quickly said as Taavi caught on and also nodded. “I’ll just go show Taavi around while you all talk.” She then added and practically dragged the boy out of the room.

“That didn’t seem suspicious at all,” Toothless said sarcastically.

“Yes well, everyone. The reason I called you all here is because Stormfly got confirmation on which tribes are coming in a few days time.” Stoick explained as he handed Hiccup the list. Toothless and Astrid read over Hiccup’s shoulder and their eyes widened.

“The Bog-Burglars, The Peaceable tribe,.....” Hiccup read some aloud and then his eyes widened. “This can’t be right, right?!”

“Aye” Stoick told the group.

“The Berserkers, Outcasts, Lava-louts, and Murderous tribes are all sending delegations.” Hiccup looked at the list. “It’s going to be a bloodbath!”

“For who? Us or them?” Astrid questioned.

“Sure tensions are going to be high during these talks but I doubt it isn’t anything we can’t handle,” Stoick stated.

“Dad, have you forgotten, we are talking about Dagur, Alvin, Hotshot and Madguts in one room.” Hiccup exclaimed. “Remember Dagur wants to kill Hotshot because he tried to take his sister as a slave years ago, Alvin has it out for Madguts because he burned down three of their bases, Hotshot has a beef with Alvin because he left him naked in the desert and Madguts is trigger-happy overall.”

“If they end up taking each other out it will be less for us to worry about though,” Toothless shrugged “Who else is coming?”

“Uh…… The Feather people, The Defenders, The Uruz…….” Hiccup read further.

“The Uruz Chieftain I know personally,” Ingvar mentioned. “Goodnatured fellow.”

“I still think we should be careful with some of these deligations.” Hiccup mumbled.

“While we are inviting these people in under the assumption of peaceful talks I will issue each Berkian a stun gun,” Stoick stated. “If a conflict can be avoided then everything will be fine. If not then you all have permission to taser the hell out of them.”

“YES!” Astrid exclaimed and the group looked at her.

“Madguts isn’t the only one who is trigger-happy,” Toothless mumbled but it was still heard and he received a punch to the arm from Astrid.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 3**

Hiccup was nervously biting his nails as he watched the approaching dust clouds in the distance. He was currently in the watchtower for his shift and had already notified the others that they would be having visitors soon.

“Hey big bro,” Taavi had joined them a few minutes ago. Hiccup turned towards the young boy who then asked “So what happens if these guys agree?”

“Well, we wouldn’t be fighting them for one,” Hiccup replied. “And we’d have more people working to help get this planet’s ecosystem back on track.”

“And if they don’t accept?” Taavi then asked. “Are the Berkians and Dragons going to war with them?”

“Where did you hear that?” Hiccup turned and stared wide-eyed at the ten year old.

“I overheard Toothless and Hookfang talking.” Taavi answered. “They said something about worst-case……..”

“Ah, the worst-case scenario.” Hiccup nodded. “Yes, worst-case a war might break out but we aren’t going out looking for one if the talks fail.”

“Okay….” Taavi accepted that and like any other kid went onto the next topic “So did you hear auntie is pregnant,”

“I did,” Hiccup smiled. Auntie was with referral to Ingvar’s adopted sister.

“I’ve never seen a baby before,” Taavi added. “How are they made?”

Hiccup coughed at the curiosity and then quickly said “I think you should as Miss Larson that. I’m sure she can give you a better explanation.”

“Okay!” Taavi said enthusiastically and then asked “Are you and Astrid going to make a baby?” This caused Hiccup to let out a choking sound.

“Big bro are you alright?” Taavi then asked.

“I’m…… fine…..” Hiccup managed to utter and then looked down towards Taavi who gave him this innocent look. A honk gave Hiccup a good excuse to not answer the question as he looked out to see a certain red-haired maniac standing on one of the modified cars that were approaching.

“HELLOOOOOOO BERK!” Was shouted and Hiccup cringed. He recognized that hair anywhere, Dagur the Deranged had arrived with fanfare. The vehicles were close enough for Dagur to spot Hiccup up in the watchtower and he called out seconds later “HICCUP! BROTHER! IT’S GOOD TO SEE YOU!”

Hiccup just groaned as Taavi watched the Berserkers arrive. “Big bro you don’t seem happy to see him.” Taavi commented.

“Well, considering last time…….,” Hiccup grumbled as he remembered the past while they left the watchtower. Dagur had hopped off the vehicle and greeted Stoick while other Berserkers disembarked as well. When the redhead spotted Hiccup he picked him up and squeezed him in a bearhug.

“Hiccup!” Dagur greeted as Hiccup tried to communicate that he couldn’t breathe.

“Dagur put Hiccup down this instance,” A female voice ordered and when Hiccup was put down and could breathe again he looked at his savior.

“Heather,” Hiccup said and greeted the blackhaired woman warmly. “You came too?”

“Well I couldn’t leave my idiot brother alone with these talks.” Heather stated as Dagur shouted that he wasn’t an idiot.

“Then who is in charge of the Berserkers while both of you guys are away?” Hiccup asked as he was genuinely curious.

“Dogsbreath is,” Heather answered.

“Wait…… didn’t he put Dagur on fire……. Twice?” Hiccup blinked. Dogsbreath was a good guy but he seemed to have more bad luck than most. Fire seemed to follow him around.

“It hasn’t been so bad in the last few years. He only burnt down part of a house this month.” Heather laughed. “I’d call it an improvement.” Hiccup nodded and when he turned around he saw Taavi and Dagur staring each other down.

“Hiccup is mine!” Taavi decreed.

“Now, now, little man. Hiccup is my brother!” Dagur said while not backing down.

“He’s mine! If you want him then fight me!” Taavi exclaimed now causing Hiccup to mumbled “Oh boy,”

“Listen here you little shrimp!” Dagur shouted. “Hiccup is….”

“Mine!” A female voice interrupted causing both Taavi and Dagur to turn to see an annoyed Astrid standing nearby.

“Uhm…… big… sis,” Taavi pouted while Dagur exclaimed “Wait, you’re the crazy woman that had Alvin running for the hills!”

“Yes,” Astrid said as she approached Hiccup. “And on the topic of who he belongs to….” She then proceeded to kiss Hiccup passionately in front of Berkians, Dragons and Berserkers.

Hiccup was in a daze for a few seconds while several men and women were catcalling.

“Well that was hot,” Dagur commented while smirking.

Heather meanwhile had greeted the others as well and when she came to Fishlegs and Ruffnut, Fishlegs actually gulped. “Fish, so good to see you again.” Heather greeted. “And Ruffnut, we didn’t have a chance to meet all those years ago.”

“Right, Tuffnut and I were off with your brother making boar pits,” Ruffnut said and then gave a predatory smile. “So you are the rumored crush,”

“And you are the girlfriend,” Heather returned said predatory smile with one of her own. Ruffnut was indeed Fishlegs’ girlfriend now but a year before the Berkians discovered Arcadia they had stayed with the Berserkers for about a week. Heather, and most of the tribe, knew that Fishlegs had developed a crush on her. Sadly nothing came of it and the Berkians departed after resupplying and resting.

The two women were shaking hands but neither let go yet and Fishlegs looked to be sweating bullets. The moment they did Ruffnut said “I like you, we should hang out.”

“Agreed, I got some juicy stories,” Heather replied as the two women walked away amicably.

“Dude,” Snotlout said getting Fishlegs’ attention. “Your girlfriend and your old crush getting friendly is scary,”

“I…… suddenly fear for my life,” Fishlegs mumbled.

While the Berserkers got settled and received a tour from some of the people Stoick had designated as guides another delegation arrived. A young woman with wild blond hair hopped out of what seemed to be a retrofitted tank from the 23rd century while others came out of the bus that had been driving next to it.

“So this is Berk?” She asked while approaching the Chief, Hiccup and Astrid. “Nice place you got,” She whistled impressed and then said “I’m Camicazi, representative of the Bog-Burglars.”

“Ah, you must be Bertha’s daughter,” Stoick greeted her then.

Hiccup blinked as the name was familiar. It took him a while but then it all clicked “Oh my Thor, you were the one that shoved a cactus down Snotlout’s pants!” Stoick’s bushy eyebrows shot up upon hearing that and Snotlout turned around upon hearing his name and blanched when he caught sight of Camicazi. “YOU!”

“Yes ME!” Camicazi laughed. “I told you once that I was a big shot in my tribe didn’t I?”

“But… But….But….” Snotlout sputtered. “Oh my god this just can’t be happening!”

Camicazi spotted Ruffnut in the distance and called out “Hey girl!” She then made her way over to where Ruffnut and Heather were talking.

“Astrid leave your lover boy for a bit and come over too!” Ruffnut then called out while beckoning her over.

Astrid gave Hiccup a quick kiss on the cheek and made her way over to others. “Hiccup am I the only one that has a bad feeling about this?” Snotlout asked as he and Fishlegs watched the women giggle in the area that had quickly become girls only. Hiccup, wisely chose not to comment.

**AN: (Author crawls out from under a mountain of books) FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 4**

Throughout the night more tribes arrived. Hiccup saw that Alvin’s delegation and that of Madguts’ were staying on opposite sides. The Lava-louts were mingling somewhat though they were staying away from Dagur and his group. The Peaceable tribe had arrived about two hours ago and surprisingly, were the only ones not armed. They were a somewhat odd people Hiccup thought. The wasteland was harsh and could be dangerous but the Peaceable tribe practiced non-aggression.

The delegation from the Wing-maidens wasn’t socializing much Hiccup also noted. They were a fairly new tribe formed from remnants of refugees from places that had been extensively plundered so coming face to face with several of these bigger tribes that had stolen from them put them on edge. If he heard the rumors correctly then women were the leading authority there and their Chieftain was fairly young.

The twins had started a bonfire outside and Stoick had ordered meat and drinks to be brought out for their guests to enjoy. The delegates would be given rooms in Area A of the facility where the living quarters were but security had been tightened by Spitelout to prevent them from wandering towards the labs or any other part where there was sensitive equipment.

There were logs scattered around the bonfire where people could sit and Hiccup was leaning on one of these logs while looking at the stars. A shooting star passed by when a shadow blocked some of Hiccup’s view. “You’re Hiccup right?” A tall, muscular man asked. He had his hair slicked back and Hiccup noted the curious stare.

“I am…….” Hiccup answered a bit hesitant.

The man held a hand out and Hiccup shook it. “I am Throk, leader of the Defenders,”

Hiccup recognized the tribe name, though he had never personally met any of them before. They had been the last delegation to arrive since their tribe had established themselves farthest west.

“You know my people and myself were quite shocked when your invitation came.” Throk said and then added, “Even more shocked when we heard about the terraformation process.”

“It’s been years,” Hiccup said “You hadn’t heard?”

“News, nowadays, travels slowly.” Throk answered. “Not a lot of people venture as far west as we have. It was thanks to you Berkians that we now have clean river water to irrigate the soil.”

“Thanks but it’s Astrid you should be congratulating.” Hiccup told Throk. “We might have all been dead if it wasn’t for her.”

“Then the rumors are true?” Throk asked in mild curiosity.

“What rumors?” Hiccup had to ask.

“There are two,” Thork started “The first one we Defenders heard was that she was a lost relic that was finally awakened and set about returning the planet to its former glory. The other one was that she was a witch that was using her powers to heal the sick and smite any foes she came across.”

Hiccup gulped as if thinking what Astrid would do if she ever heard those rumors, particularly the last one. “She’s neither a lost relic or a witch,” Hiccup corrected. “She’s just a very… wonderful, sweet woman that was used by corrupt people.”

“I see,” Throk nodded. “And The Dragons? How did you conquer them?”

“We didn’t…….” Hiccup frowned. “They joined us on their own.”

“The Dragons are fearsome warriors. Even we who are so far west have heard of their feats.” Throk mentioned. “A tribe like that would not just join up and fall under the command of another. There must be a story behind it all,”

“Oh there is, believe me there is,” Hiccup stated.

“Well now I want to know too….” A voice interrupted causing Hiccup to jolt up. He turned around to see Dagur behind them with meat skewers in his hands.

“Oh my Thor, why do you keep doing that?” Hiccup asked as he held a hand over his heart.

“Doing what? I was just bringing you guys some meat skewers,” Dagur waved the skewers around as if to emphasize the point.

“How long have you been listening in?” Hiccup grumbled while Throk accepted a skewer.

“Pretty much the whole time,” Dagur bluntly stated as if sneaking around and listening in on someone’s conversation was normal for him. “So are you going to tell us?”

“Tell you what?” Hiccup asked.

“How you got the Dragons to ally with you!” Dagur now shouted as he started to shake Hiccup. “You can’t just leave me hanging after saying that there is a spectacular story behind it! Come on Hiccup spill!”

“I think you should stop shaking him first,” Throk remarked.

When Hiccup got his bearings again he noticed that Dagur had once again attracted attention, mainly from the other delegations. “You were going to explain why and how the Dragon’s joined?” Alvin now asked as he took a swig of his mead.

“It’s a doozy of a story alright…” Gobber added drawing more curiosity from the large group.

“Gobber you aren’t helping,” Hiccup hissed as now almost all eyes were on him. He turned to where Toothless and Astrid sat for support.

“Sorry babe, you’re on your own here.” Astrid said as she then proceeded to take a bite out of her drumstick.

“Bud come on, help me out here. You were there too.” Hiccup pleaded as all eyes were still on him. He didn’t do well with people watching him.

“Oh my Thor!” Dagur exclaimed “This mystery is killing me! Do I need to bring out my cute eyes?!”

Hiccup took a step back as Dagur was trying to look cute as he indicated for Hiccup to tell the story. But Dagur looked anything but cute and the rest of the people thought that as well. Heather had to step in and drag her brother away, giving Hiccup some breathing room.

“Okay so everyone wants to know right?” Hiccup asked and he could see many nodding. “Well this story starts about 3 years ago,”

_\-------Flashback-------_

_Year: 24XX (2 years after terraformation)_   
_ Location: Earth, Berk (Formally Arcadia)_

_“Hiccup wake up!!!!” Astrid shouted as she pounded on the door to Hiccup’s room. “So help me if I have to knock this door down!”_

_Astrid was still knocking when a groggy Hiccup opened the door. This caused Astrid’s fist to make contact with Hiccup’s face. “Ack!” Hiccup shouted as he staggered backwards._

_“Oh my Thor, I’m so sorry Hiccup!” Astrid said as she rushed forward and grabbed Hiccup’s arm before tugging him out of the room._

_“Hey Astrid… wait…. What!” Hiccup barely had time to formulate a sentence as he was dragged out of his room, out of the apartment he shared with Fishlegs, and down the hall. Other Berkians wisely chose to get out of their way as Astrid rushed through the halls like a whirlwind while Hiccup looked like a limp noodle._

_Hiccup noted that Astrid was bringing him to the elevator that led down to the older area of Arcadia. When they were inside he could finally catch his breath while Astrid pressed the down button. “What’s going on?” He asked as he noted Astrid’s grim expression._

_“Spitelout and Snotlout are in trouble,” Astrid explained. “They were clearing out some of the older areas and salvaging stuff that was usable when Snotlout slipped and fell against a console, turning it on.”_

_“Okay……” Hiccup said tentatively._

_“They are now locked in and being held hostage,” Astrid explained._

_“Wait….. How are they being held hostage? Did we get invaded?” Hiccup asked as his eyes widened._

_“It’s not that simple,” Astrid said. “It’s the console that’s keeping them hostage.”_

_“I am seriously confused here.” Hiccup uttered as the elevator arrived and the doors dinged open._

_“It’s better if I show you,” Astrid said as she walked out of the elevator with determination while Hiccup followed closely after her._


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 5**

_“SOMEONE GET US OUT OF HERE!” Hiccup heard the shouts along with the frantic banging. When Astrid turned the corner Hiccup saw a small group of people crowded around a bulkhead door. The banging was getting louder and Hiccup recognized Snotlout’s voice screaming from the other side._

_The Berkians parted when Astrid returned “Snotlout? Spitelout? I’m back with Hiccup,” Astrid explained. Hiccup couldn’t see what was going on on the other side of the door but Snotlout shouted “WELL THAT’S FINE AND DANDY BUT GET US OUT OF HERE. THIS THING IS GIVING ME THE CREEPS!”_

_“Just what happened? Can’t we just cut through the bulkhead with one of the plasma torches we found?” Hiccup asked as he looked confused._

_“We can’t,” Astrid said. “The console Snotlout activated is communicating through a binary system. It basically is threatening us as it seems to have gotten control of the secondary suppression system.”_

_“What secondary suppression system?” Hiccup asked with a frown since he only knew of the sleeping gas._

_“The older part of Arcadia isn’t equipped with sleeping gas but poison gas instead.” Astrid explained. “If anyone of us tampers with the door then the gas will be released onto Snotlout and Spitelout.”_

_“The hell?!” Hiccup exclaimed. “What does that computer want? To go this far there have to be demands, right?!”_

_“It asked for a vessel,” Astrid explained before adding “and it was less than amused when Snotlout offered it a water canteen.”_

_“How was I supposed to know that wasn’t what it was looking for?!” Snotlout’s shout came from the other side of the door followed by more banging._

_“Uhm….. lass……” Gobber spoke up. “Don’t you think they might mean a body?”_

_Astrid pursed her lips before nodding in agreement with Gobber. Meanwhile, Hiccup was still processing everything when something clicked. “This thing is sentient? Another A.I.?”_

_“I don’t know but I think so. It asked to meet you specifically,” Astrid was frowning harder and Hiccup could agree with her. This whole situation was weird. Far weirder than the very detailed romance stories Mildew spewed when he was drunk as hell. That thought caused Hiccup’s mind to cringe though he didn’t show it physically. The weirder part was that this ‘thing’ asked for him by name._

_“Astrid…..”_

_“Hiccup, no! Don’t you even dare suggest it!” Astrid growled._

_“What were you thinking I was suggesting?” Hiccup frowned._

_“The console is obviously not this thing’s main hub. You want to arrange a meeting.” Astrid had her hands on her hips. “I won’t allow it! The last time you did something stupidly crazy you got shot in the leg!”_

_“We ended up saving the planet!” Hiccup argued._

_“You. Got. Shot. In. The. Leg!” Astrid now punctuated. “We don’t know what this thing is capable of and you aren’t going anywhere without backup!”_

_“Alright alright!” Hiccup took a step back and held his hands out defensively. When Astrid made up her mind like this there was usually no changing it. Those that tried ended up visiting Mrs. Larson for medical attention._

_“Guyyyyyyyys!” Snotlout exclaimed. “The console is doing something!”_

_“Doing what?” Hiccup asked with a frown._

_“I don’t know? Just 0’s and 1’s are flashing over the screen…….. Dad wait… don’t touch that!” Was heard and it was followed by a groan._

_“What happened?” Astrid asked worriedly._

_“The damn thing shocked me!” Spitelout uttered._

_“Wait, the screen is changing again!” Snotlout told them. “It’s now just displaying random numbers.”_

_“It’s latitude and longitude boy.” Spitelout corrected. “I think this thing does want a meeting.”_

_Nearly twenty minutes later Hiccup gulped. “You got the coordinates right…… right?!” He asked as he looked down towards the black abyss of the missile silo they were currently scaling down. The twins and Fishlegs were on the catwalks above holding the ropes while Astrid had secured herself and Hiccup together. The given coordinates seemed to be the missile silo that once held the Terraformation rocket._

_Hiccup had to squint as Astrid turned her head towards him, the light from her headlamp momentarily blinding him a bit. “These are the right coordinates. We never actually searched the silo because we didn’t think anything was down here.”_

_“But don’t you think this is a bit odd?” Hiccup questioned. “We have an AI we know nothing about yet it knows about us. It’s in a place we can’t reach by normal means which is troubling,”_

_“Let’s not forget this thing is desperate,” Astrid threatened. “If it so much twitches wrong…..”_

_“We still have plan C,” Hiccup mumbled as he motioned to his backpack._

_“Wait….. What is plan B?” Astrid asked curiously._

_“Running basically,” Hiccup deadpanned as they continued to descend._

_They soon came to the bottom of the silo and Hiccup looked around. The light on his forehead illuminated the area. “There’s nothing here,” He commented as he kicked some rusting debris away with his foot._

_“Most of the iron here is melted,” Astrid glanced around. “Though that would be expected when a rocket is launched.”_

_“The catwalk that led up to the rocket fell down here as well.” Astrid observed and then frowned. “Hiccup what does that look like to you?”_

_“What?” Hiccup questioned, turning around and saw where Astrid was pointing. Both went in for a closer look after getting out of their rope harnesses. Getting some of the debris out of the way Hiccup mumbled “Oh you have got to be kidding me,”_

_“HELLOOOOO DOWN THERE!” Echoed causing Hiccup and Astrid to look up. They couldn’t see the twins or Fishlegs anymore but their voices still traveled. “YOU GUYS FIND ANYTHING?!”_

_“A ROUND BULKHEAD DOOR!” Hiccup shouted back upwards. “BUT THE KEYPAD IS DESTROYED!” No sooner had he said that when there was a groan of rusted metal. Both Astrid and Hiccup stared wide eyed as the rusted door swung open. It made a creaking sound that made it known that it hadn’t been operated in decades. The inside seemed to be an old circular tunnel. There were cobwebs everywhere and the lights that had been fixed to the wall flickered or weren’t working at all._

_“This isn’t at all creepy,” Astrid sarcastically uttered. She grabbed the weapon she had strapped to her back which was a short hand axe and gestured for Hiccup to get behind her._

_“Astrid I can’t just let you go first!” Hiccup tried to argue._

_“Who here has the weapon?” Astrid asked as they started venturing into the dark and creepy tunnel._

_“You….”_

_“Who here has actually used said weapon before?” She then asked._

_“You……”_

_“And who won the punching contest last week?” She muttered._

_“You……” Hiccup answered._

_“So don’t you worry about a thing Hiccup. I’ll hack anyone who dares to touch my man into pieces,” Astrid stated bluntly._

_“Eh…….. oh dear,” Hiccup muttered under his breath._

_The tunnel was long and somewhat claustrophobic as they ventured deeper. Hiccup had no clue how long they had been walking but they came to some type of circular room._

_“This place just keeps on surprising us,” Hiccup mumbled upon the discovery. There was sunlight streaming into the room so the duo turned off their headlamps. Hiccup looked up to see that part of the metal ceiling was corroded and had given away over the years, creating a hole connected to the surface. Clearly no one had cared for this section in decades, maybe centuries. The metal floor creaked as well as Astrid was walking towards a large thing that had been covered with a tarp. Hiccup, however, gave a yell of surprise when he was yanked. A muscular arm pinned him down and there was a gleaming blade held to his neck._

_“The hell!” Astrid whirled around ready to attack. She hadn’t even sensed the intruder and blamed herself right now for getting Hiccup into this situation. The person pinning Hiccup down momentarily was about 6 foot, muscled and was a redhead. A scar ran down the person’s left eye as he shouted at Astrid “Stay back or I slice his throat!”_

_Astrid’s grip on her hand axe tightened as she tried to figure out a way to save Hiccup and beat the crap out of this guy, whoever he was._

_“c….Can’t we just talk about this?” Hiccup managed to say as he was being pressed into the sand-covered floor._

_“Shut up, I wasn’t talking to you,” The man growled. “Now your little friend is going to put her weapon down and then you guys are going to lead me back out.” The man commanded. “How dare you even think you can keep me prisoner!”_

_“We’re not keeping you prisoner!” Hiccup exclaimed._

_“Don’t you dare lie. Those doors opened for you two!” The man said as he pressed the knife closer to Hiccup’s throat. “Why else would you come to this…. Dump!”_

_“He’s not lying!” Astrid said. “We don’t even know who you are!”_

_“Don’t you dare try that with me girl!” The man now shouted as he was getting more and more agitated. “I wasn’t going to kill either of you since both of you are young but maybe an example is needed!” Hiccup gulped as he felt the knife nick his throat and draw blood._

_“ENOUGH!” A deep authoritative but somewhat mechanical voice said causing all three occupants to blink in shock. The man looked around in shock much the same way as Astrid did. Hiccup couldn’t do much since he was still pinned to the ground._

_“I did not bring any of you here for the boy to die.” The voice said again and this time Astrid yanked the tarp off of the large thing in the room. It turned out to be an older version of the computer hub Astrid’s consciousness was kept in which caused her to frown. Old fashioned cameras were mounted on the hub and they whirred to life._

_“The hell is this?!” The man ground out._

_“The reason we came here for.” Hiccup managed to say. He was hauled up with surprising ease but wasn’t let go._

_“This better not be some trick,” The mysterious redhead uttered as he watched with suspicious eyes._

_The cameras had focussed on Astrid for a moment and the mechanical voice was back, originating from the old speakers in the room. “You must be Astrid, indeed, your body is marvelous,”_

_Astrid growled as she gripped her axe tighter. How dare this……. Thing even look at her._

_“Who are you?” Astrid asked while trying to hold her anger back._

_“Me?” The mechanical voice asked. “Oh how silly of me. I should have introduced myself.” The voice almost sounded pleasant but you could still hear an underlying edge to it. “I AM JOHANN!”_

_It didn’t take a genius to figure out from the gobsmacked looks on Astrid and Hiccup’s faces to imagine the thoughts that were running through their minds at that point._

**AN: Hi guys, I'm back with updating. I was gone for a week or so because there was a passing in my family and I just didn't feel much like writing during that time.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 6**

“Who the hell is Johann?” Dagur interrupted the story causing a lot of angry glares to be turned his way.

“If you would be quite we can find out…..” Heather hissed as she yanked her brother’s ear.

“Ouchie!! AAAH sis… SIS…. that hurts!” Dagur exclaimed.

“Good!” Heather huffed as Hiccup got the opportunity to dive right back into the story.

_\-------Flashback continued after unforeseen redheaded interruption----_

_The looks of horror and realisation could be seen on both Astrid and Hiccup upon hearing the name but the mystery man was blinking and taking in the scene with a look of utter confusement._

_“Wait….. So this thing talks?” The man asked._

_“Obviously,” Johann scoffed. “I am an Artificial Intelligence and you sir are looking at me as if I were some roadside attraction.”_

_“Well pardon me but I’ve never seen one of you before,” The man muttered under his breath. Hiccup thought that no one was to overhear that bit._

_“Uhm…. can you let me up?” Hiccup asked. “Half my face is going numb from being pressed into the sand and I think I inhaled some.”_

_The man looked down and then back at where Astrid and the machine were before he slowly got off of Hiccup. He was still eyeing the two with suspicion and kept his knife at his side. “Just what the heck is going on here?!”_

_“That’s what we like to know,” Astrid frowned as she crossed her arms while eyeing the computer hub. “Aren’t you supposed to be….. Dead?”_

_“Do you honestly believe that someone of Marie Hofferson’s fanaticism would let me go that easily?” Johann huffed. “Oh, I was defeated that day but I wasn’t killed. To her I was still her golden goose. That is until you came along. You just had to throw a wrench into my plans.”_

_“Me?!” Astrid blinked in confusion. “I never even knew you were here.”_

_“That may be true but you still inadvertently ruined my plans for revenge.” Johann sounded angry as the cameras focussed on Astrid. “After the incident Marie and Hank were much more cautious. They ended up shoving me into this prototype hub that had limited connectivity to Arcadia. I had years to plan my revenge while secretly infiltrating the Arcadia computer systems. And oh what a revenge it would have been!” Johann happily proclaimed._

_“Uhm…..” Hiccup spoke up. “I still don’t understand how this is Astrid’s fault…..”_

_“Everything was going according to plan until Marie and Hank got the bright idea to make a new AI!” Johann shouted. “I was locked out of the system and my beautiful revenge could not be completed!”_

_“Oh….” Hiccup mumbled._

_“So you hold Snotlout and Spitelout hostage and get us down here. But for what?” Astrid now asked as she was starting to get on edge. “Hank and Marie are dead. There’s no more need for revenge.”_

_“Au contraire, my revenge wouldn’t have stopped with just Hank and Mary.” Johann tisked. “You see when I was digitized I got a hold of some pretty interesting data. Data that could change the very future of this planet.”_

_“You’re bluffing.” Hiccup said._

_“Am I? Am I really?” Johann asked and Hiccup supposed if the man still had a body that he would be looking at them with incredulity. “How about I prove it. I will tell you what happened to the colony on Mars.”_

_Both Hiccup and Astrid gaped. To this day they still wondered what could have happened to make an entire colony disappear. “I’m getting confused here.” The mysterious man said as he scratched the side of his head. “What does all this have to do with me being here.”_

_“It doesn’t,” Johann actually laughed. “You were just some poor sod that probably got lost and fell through the ceiling. But I couldn’t let you go until I got these two here. Such a headache honestly. Well that is if I still had a head.”_

_The man flushed crimson upon hearing that and Hiccup supposed that he may have actually gotten lost. “Now where was I…..” Johann said prompting Hiccup to pay attention again to the AI. “Ah yes, the Mars colony. According to the files that I managed to intercept at that time it would seem that the Mars colony, Hesperia, had been attacked upon order of the Rhea colony. They dispatched a ship equipped with an FTL drive from Titan.”_

_“FTL?” Hiccup asked. Surprisingly it was Astrid that answered._

_“Faster Than Light,” She muttered. “But that shouldn’t be possible. The Genesis ships didn’t have FTL drives equipped. When they left Earth they had EM drives installed.”_

_“So where did they get them?” Hiccup asked with a frown._

_“Now now, revealing that would have me laying all my ducks on the table.” Johann tutted._

_“Ducks and EM drives?” The man asked louder now. “This is all going way over my head. What the hell are EM drives?!”_

_“It’s an engine that doesn’t use any propellant.” Astrid replied. “The concept was developed early 21st century. It is basically an engine that works by generating thrust through the reflection of electromagnetic waves that it generates. The approximate speed would be one tenth of the speed of light when applied at maximum.”_

_“Quite a thorough explanation,” Johann chuckled. “Just as I have come to expect from the illustrious Astrid.”_

_“You aren’t going to tell us anymore are you?” Hiccup asked._

_“Well…. I guess this little tidbit of extra information can’t hurt.” Johann replied. “The ship that was sent to destroy the Mars colony never made it back to its post. According to the files it imploded after engaging the FTL drive on its return journey.”_

_“Okay, so you have information.” Astrid said as she narrowed her eyes. “That still doesn’t explain why you lured us down here.”_

_“Honestly dear girl. Hasn’t it dawned on you yet?” Johann asked in a bit of a condescending tone. “I want you two to prepare a body for me. Either one of yours will do. I might even take the redhead that is standing watching all of this dumbly. You both have been in contact with Drago’s machine after all.”_

_“He was building it for you!” Hiccup exclaimed. “I knew it. I knew it. There was no way he’d have that stuff in a week.”_

_“Of course he was building it for me.” Johann huffed. “He was my accomplice after all. We both wanted to get even with Hank and Marie and the people that they worked for! After everything that was done, do you really think we’d let bygones be bygones?”_

_“But you want our bodies!” Hiccup shouted. “I’m going to have to say no!”_

_“Now now, don’t be so stubborn. Haven’t I already proven that I have information that you don’t. I am willing to trade all my knowledge for a body.” Johann said. “Honestly boy. What significant thing are you going to do with yours besides kissing your girlfriend.”_

_“HEY!” Both Astrid and Hiccup shouted while blushing._

_“YOU KEEP YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF MY HICCY YOU MULCH EATING PILE OF DUNG!” Astrid screeched._

_“That honestly isn’t a way for a lady to talk,” Johann admonished. “Have both of you forgotten that I have hostages. I was asking nicely but now I will have to demand it. One of you will give me your body or it’s bye-bye hostages.”_

_“But then you have nothing to bargain with,” Astrid stated._

_“Won’t I?” Johann laughed as the metal bulkhead door behind the trio was slammed shut with a resounding bang._

_“Well…… there goes plan B,” Hiccup dryly stated._


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 7**

_“Hiccup now is not the time for sarcasm!” Astrid growled. “We have to dismantle this bucket of bolts first.”_

_“Your name is Hiccup?!” The redhead asked with wide eyes._

_“Yeah…….” Hiccup mumbled, somewhat distracted. “You got a problem with my name?”_

_“No…..” The mysterious red-headed man uttered. “It’s just……… I expected you to be……….. More imposing.”_

_“Huh?” Hiccup muttered before Johann let out a vicious laugh._

_“You lot, dismantle me?!” Johann asked incredulously. “If even one of you moves towards me I will release the poison gas onto your friends.” The AI then warned._

_“Good thing we don’t need to move towards you,” Hiccup said as he grabbed the cylinder attached to his hip and pushed a button. Suddenly the hub containing the AI went dark. “Astrid, 20 seconds!” Hiccup shouted._

_“Got it!” Astrid replied while grabbing her hatchet. She started slamming the blade into the hub’s hard drives, effectively making minced meat out of the things._

_“The hell just happened?!” The redhead asked as he looked between Astrid who was hacking away with what could only be described as gusto and Hiccup who looked completely innocent. “What did you do?!”_

_“EMP grenade,” Hiccup wiggled the canister. “Good for one use but it can knock out any electronic device in a three-mile radius without hurting humans.”_

_The redhead blinked as he stared at the canister. “Where did you even get that?”_

_“I……… made it……” Hiccup answered tentatively as he saw the incredulous stare of the stranger._

_“I think I did it!” Astrid proclaimed proudly as she stepped back to show the guys the mangled hard drives. There wasn’t much left except for open wires that could become a fire hazard. After the twenty second mark when Johann didn’t come online anymore the group let out a collective breath._

_“Well, that was anticlimactic,” The redhead muttered. Astrid slammed her axe into several more consoles just to make sure the job was done thoroughly before she turned back to Hiccup._

_“So how do we get out of here?” She asked with a frown. “I doubt those automatic doors work now.”_

_Hiccup merely pointed upwards to the hole in the roof where the sand was coming down from. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me,” Astrid groaned._

_“I doubt dad’s going to be happy if he has to come to get us, especially since that EMP blast would have knocked out Arcadia’s systems as well and probably scrambled some files.” Hiccup said as he too looked at the hole._

_“It scrambled my systems?!” Astrid shrieked. Even after two years as a human she still often thought of that computer system as hers. Hiccup couldn’t blame her for that. It was a tough transition._

_“It’s why the EMP was plan C,” Hiccup mumbled. “Look, if we build a pyramid we can get out of here easy. Much better than having my dad come busting through the door with weapons drawn.”_

_Astrid pursed her lips. She loved Stoick, he was as much of a father to her as he was to Hiccup but he did tend to get somewhat trigger happy. “Right,... you get on his shoulders and I get on yours.” She agreed._

_“Wait, don’t I get a say in this?” The other guy asked._

_“Do you want to become a strainer when our people burst in here? No? Then chop-chop mystery man!” Astrid clapped her hands._

_“I’m not a mystery man!” The redhead groaned but still got in position. He outstretched his hands so that Hiccup could climb up. “My name is Hookfang. I’m part of The Dragons.”_

“Oh, so that’s how you met Hookfang!” Dagur interrupted once again. “I’d been wondering about th-OUCH!”

“What did I tell you about talking through the story!” Heather smacked her brother upside the head while admonishing him. “You do this every time. EVERY TIME!”

“It wasn’t one of my best moments I’ll admit,” Hookfang groaned while Meatlug was on the ground laughing. He bit into a meat skewer while somewhat pouting. “Was there a reason why you had to include this part in your story Hiccup?”

“Just context…..” Hiccup innocently chirped.

“Just context he says,” Stormfly was also laughing. “I think he’s getting you back for stealing his clothes while he was in the shower last week,”

“Some of us enjoyed the view though,” Astrid proclaimed and then winked at Hiccup who’s blush could be seen even in the dim lighting.

“Wait, you aren’t gonna tell them the next part are you?!” Hookfang asked somewhat urgently.

_\------------Flashback continued-------_

_“Will you hold still?!” Astrid growled as she had a handful of Hiccup’s hair in one hand. Her other hand was on Hiccup’s shoulder while one of her feet was on Hookfang’s shoulder as she tried to climb up._

_“I AM TRYING!” Hookfang grounded out as he held onto Hiccup who was balancing on his shoulders already. “It’s not like you’re exactly light!”_

_“Did you just call me fat!” Astrid shouted._

_“No! No, he didn’t!” Hiccup quickly shouted as he wobbled. “Look, we’re almost there. Astrid you just need to get on my shoulders so we can climb up.”_

_“I know that Hiccup!” Astrid said while Hookfang let out an ouch as her foot met his face._

_“Oh….. gods…..” Hookfang gasped out. “Just how did I get myself into this……….” Astrid’s climbing was causing the already two-man tower to wobble._

_“My shoulders are about to give out!” Hookfang warned. “I don’t think I can support this much wei-AAAAHHH!” Just as he said that the wobbly pyramid came toppling down. A puff of sand was launched into the air around where the trio crashed. Astrid was somewhat tangled up with Hiccup while both landed on Hookfang who ended up face down in the dirt._

_“Why did I ever listen to Toothless?” Hookfang groaned._

_“You know Toothless?!” Hiccup perked up._

_“Of course I know Toothless. Why do you think I’m here?!” Hookfang muttered. “Now can both of you get off of me?!”_

_“Oye! You three down there!” A voice called out after Astrid and Hiccup had scrambled off of Hookfang. The trio looked up to see a platinum blond woman sporting a pixie cut looking down at them from the hole. “Need a hand?”_

_“Yes!” Hiccup and Astrid shouted while Hookfang shouted “No!”_

_“Harriet, don't be such a prune!” The blonde admonished._

_“Stormfly send you after me didn’t she?!” Hookfang asked and then shouted “AND DON’T CALL ME HARRIET!”_

_“Your real name is Harriet?” Astrid blinked curiously as she asked that. Hookfang merely groaned._

_“Stormfly was pretty sure you would get lost again,” The woman, Windshear, laughed. “Looks like she was right.”_

_“This is like a nightmare,” Hookfang groaned while Windshear told them she’d get the rope._   
  
  
**AN: So for the last 2 weeks I've had flu, a fever and a middle ear infection from that fever. Which totally and I mean totally sucks. October/November is usually the months I get sick and for the rest of the year I'm perfectly fine. But I'm all better now so It's back to writing. Stay tuned for the up and coming Halloween oneshot. **


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 8**

“Wait…. So Hookfang’s name is Harriet?!” Dagur couldn’t stop laughing.

“Hey! My mother wanted a daughter alright!” Hookfang growled.

“Brother I don’t think you should laugh,” Heather said and then pointed out “Your middle name is Shirley after all.”

“SIS!” Dagur shrieked while looking aghast.

“So what happened next?” Camicazi asked as she leaned forward slightly in anticipation. “What does this have to do with The Dragons joining you guys?”

“It’s getting late, shouldn’t we…. You know head to bed? Tomorrow is going to be a big day after all.” Hiccup mumbled.

“Oh no you don’t!” Camicazi uttered. “You aren’t leaving us here with this cliffhanger!”

“Alright alright!” Hiccup shrank back somewhat. “But it’s a pretty long story.”

“Maybe a moderate summary would do the trick,” Heather suggested. “I mean if none of the important details are left out,”

“Okay, well….. When we got out of the hole with Windshear’s help we realized that we were about 2 miles from Berk.” Hiccup started to explain. “Dad was pretty pissed when we got back for a number of reasons. First, I kind of knocked out several key systems which I was already afraid of. Second we brought back members of The Dragons.”

“But that wasn’t the thing he was most livid about,” Astrid chimed in. “Remember he nearly blew off his beard when you explained as to why said Dragons knew about you personally.”

“Right, so dad really didn’t appreciate us hiding Toothless. Much less that several of us were in on it including Mildew.” Hiccup explained. “Ellie and Mildew actually took the brunt of his ire which I still feel bad about. And because he didn’t trust The Dragons he threw them in the brig and it took me several days to convince him to hear what they had to say.”

“Mighty stubborn he was aye,” Gobber now spoke.

“Gobber you didn’t trust them either!” Hiccup spoke up.

“Aye, I didn’t trust them but I didn’t say throw them in the brig!” Gobber retorted.

“What are you lot talking about?” A deep voice came from behind causing the whole group huddled around Hiccup to look over and see Stoick approaching.

“Oh Hiccup was just telling us on how The Dragons joined you guys.” Camicazi answered.

“He is now is he?” Stoick raised a bushy red brow as he looked at his son before taking a seat on a nearby log. “Well go on. I’m curious as well.”

“Don’t you already know?” Toothless frowned.

“Just the bare bones of it,” Stoick answered.

“Aye, Hiccup was mighty tightlipped about the whole thing.” Gobber added. “Well considering what happened with the Red Death….”

“Gobber, you know?!” Stoick exclaimed.

“Wait, he didn’t tell you?” Gobber uttered in surprise.

“Gobber… REALLY!!!” Hiccup groaned.

“Sorry lad. I thought you told the old man about the harem.” Gobber said while looking nervous.

“GOBBER!” Hiccup exclaimed at the same time Astrid shouted “WHAT HAREM!”

“Uhm… Astrid… really. It’s not what you think……” Hiccup gulped as he looked into the piercing eyes of his girlfriend.

“Hiccup….” Astrid said threateningly. “I may have been a computer system years ago but I do know what a harem is.” Her voice had gotten a deadly edge in it as she clenched her hands. “Now what the frick is Gobber talking about and how did you get involved with a harem?”

Hiccup turned pale as he recognized that glare. It was the same glare Astrid had given some of the younger girls who had set eyes on Hiccup while they were traveling. He was doomed. He knew he was doomed. No way could he explain this and not be doomed.

‘Way to go Gobber,’ Hiccup thought as the man in question simply drank his mead. Toothless was no help either as all Hiccup got from him was a smirk.

“It was the only way to save Toothless!” Hiccup said as he looked at his girlfriend. “Believe me I would never ever willingly join a harem!”

“Boy don’t keep us in suspense!” Madguts growled “Not unless you got anything harder than mead!”

“Right… uhm… where was I?” Hiccup mumbled, grateful for the slight distraction.

“You were going on about Stoick being pissed and throwing Hookfang and Windshear into the brig,” Gobber happily supplied as Tuffnut refilled his mead mug. “You staying Stoick?”

“Aye, I might finally get the whole damn story out of him.” Stoick muttered to his best friend.

Meanwhile, as Hiccup was trying his best to explain and not get killed by his girlfriend, two ships were approaching Earth’s orbit.

“Sir, ETA to stable orbit 1 hour,” A crewman informed Grimmel as he sat in the Commander’s chair.

“Good, how is the scan of the surface going?” Grimmel then asked.

“Sir, it’s not.” A female Lieutenant answered with a gulp.

“Would you care to repeat that Lieutenant?” Commander Grimmel sharply asked.

“The scan sir, we can’t seem to perform it.” The woman answered again. “Our sensors pick up nothing.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Grimmel stated.

“Sir, maybe I should explain it like this. Our sensors are not picking up the planet. At all.”

“WHAT?!” Grimmel shouted as his eyes widened slightly. He quickly composed himself again and looked at his bridge crew. “Run a systems diagnostic. Find out what is happening!” He ordered as he could clearly see the Earth from their forward-facing viewport. “Get the readings from the Persephone as well.” He added. “If their sensors were damaged then the Persephone should have the data we need.”

Not five minutes had passed when the previously mentioned Lieutenant approached her Commander with a datapad. “Sir, All systems appear fully functional. The data requested from the Persephone shows the same readings. We simply can’t detect this planet on our scanners.”

Commander Grimmel was quiet for a moment as he was deep in thought. He hadn’t expected this development. “Lieutenant……… Senna,” He looked at her name tag ID. “Do you have an idea as to why this happened?”

“I don’t sir,” The woman answered. “My best guess would be that it is caused by the planet itself and not our sensors.”

“Send out the order for the T.S.S. Persephone to dispatch ground reconnaissance troops.” Grimmel stated.

“Sir, with all due respect….” The woman uttered. Several members on the bridge held their breath as they listened in on the conversation while appearing to do their job.

“Did you just question my order Lieutenant?!” Grimmel raised a brow as he looked at the woman in the standard crisp white uniform.

“S...Sir…. it’s just. For safety reasons, shouldn’t we inform the Council of this development before we proceed? What if we send out the drones first? The exploration team would be walking in blind otherwise.” The woman stammered.

“So you are questioning my command then,” Grimmel sat back as he haughtily looked at the woman. “Tell me Lieutenant, who’s vessel is this?”

“Y-Yours sir,” She answered.

“So who is in charge then?” He then asked with a raised brow.

“You are sir,” She bit down.

Grimmel then pressed a button on his chair to bring up a direct line to the Persephone. “Captain Queen, I am here to inform you that you will assemble a ground force to survey the planet.” He wasted no time in telling the woman on the other end his decision. “You will report your findings directly to the Pandora.”

“Very well Commander. Is there anything else?” Mala asked emotionlessly.

“Yes, I am transferring a staff member over to your ship. She is to be part of the Exploration team.” Grimmel then added as he watched the young Lieutenant gulp nervously in glee.

“Very well. I will have my crew stand by for the incoming transport.” The Captain stated and then ended the call. Grimmel then turned back to the woman that was still facing him.

“Lieutenant Senna you are to gather your belongings and report to the Departure bay. You will be transferred to the T.S.S Persephone effective immediately.”

“Yes sir,” The young Lieutenant bit her lip and was about to turn and walk away. All the eyes of the rest of the bridge crew were on her and her face burned in shame.

“And Lieutenant,” Grimmel called. The woman stopped and answered with a “Yes sir?”

“Don’t ever question my orders again,” The Commander stated before he turned back to the viewscreen, ignoring her completely.

The young Lieutenant’s hands clenched in fists but she kept her head high as she departed the bridge for her next assignment. Only in the Departure Bay did she notice that she was actually relieved to be away from her former commanding officer.

**AN: (Pops up out of nowhere scaring several readers) Hi everybody. I hope everyone that celebrates Thanksgiving had a wonderful time. So many turkey food comas. I know I've been away a while but I needed to take little break from writing so as to not get burnt out. During my 'vacation' I revised the plot of AI a bit. This story will now be a trilogy. The 3rd part will be called A.I.: Slaves of Ambrosia and it will cover the 3 year mark where Hiccup and Toothless face off against the Red Death (The flashback would have taken me another 16+ chapters to complete if I left it in this story).**   
  
**Also I will be actively working on world building for my first original novel and I have plans to return to my roots and do another Hiccup runs away fic. **   
**My original novel will be called Thorns of Time and the new HTTYD fic will be named HTTYD: Secrets of the Hidden world. Both I will announce properly when the time for publishing is near.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 9**

The young Lieutenant gulped as an aide led her to Captain Queen’s office. Being summoned by another commanding officer so soon after she had landed on her new post was quite unnerving. What was even more unnerving was that she was the only one making any noise in the white hallways of the ship’s hull. She couldn’t hear other footsteps though she saw people walking past her. They were as silent as the ninjas of old. Even the aide that had approached her had an air of mystery surrounding him.

The click clack of her heels stopped when the aide directed her to a non-descript door. The young woman frowned but entered as the door slid open automatically. The room inside was surprising. The young woman had suspected a modern and sleek looking office that was standard for all personnel. Instead she stepped into a room that looked to have wood paneling and as well as several bookcases filled to the brim. It looked more like something out of a mystery novel. She had read many of those novels that had been scanned into the databases from her tablet. She wondered what actual books would feel like. Paper was something of a myth now and even owning a scrap of it was a symbol of prestige.

“Greetings Lieutenant,” A female voice said shocking her out of her musings. Turning sharply she saw the Captain seated on a black leather sofa. “I see you’ve taken a liking to my simulation.”

“Ma’am!” She saluted while standing at attention. Her cheeks burned in embarrassment at being caught unawares.

“At ease soldier,” Mala commanded. “I wanted to see your reaction to this,” She then gestured before clicking a switch causing the room to change.

“It was a hologram?” She asked before quickly adding the “ma’am” at the end of her question.

“Yes, it’s from the study of my ancestors when they were still living on Earth.” The Captain explained as she pocketed the device. “I like to test new crewmembers with it.”

“Test?” Now the Lieutenant frowned. “I don’t understand….”

“What did you first feel when you came into this room?” Mala asked. “I saw on your face was wonder and awe. It tells me a bit more about your character.”

“I….. see ma’am.” The young woman responded.

“Now my other question. What did you do to get sent here from your previous post Lieutenant Luna Senna?” Mala asked bluntly.

The young officer gulped but decided to tell the truth. She knew of some colleagues who got caught in a lie and it ended badly for them. “I disobeyed a direct order from a superior ma’am.”

“Well that tells me little,” The blonde Captain raised a brow. “Commander Grimmel is known for getting rid of those he considers nuisances one way or another. No one really says anything against him because of his past achievements. Just be glad he reassigned you and didn’t order his followers to throw you out of the airlock.”

The young Lieutenant gulped but then asked “His followers ma’am?”

“You must have noticed the officers in black and red uniforms he keeps around.” Mala now stated. “They usually have this blank stare on their faces.”

“Yes ma’am but what do you mean? They seemed quiet but….” Luna uttered.

“You must either be naive or fresh out of the academy.” Was the statement and the Lieutenant blushed. “Let me give you a piece of advice. If one of those guys comes after you, you run. Don’t look back, just run.” Mala was so resolute in her advice that the young woman gulped.

“Now I do believe we have an Exploration mission to start.” The Captain said as she stood up from the sofa. “Follow me to hangerbay D4 Lieutenant. We need to suit up. The rest of the team is already waiting.”

“We….. ma’am you’re coming too?!” She asked as she followed her new boss out of the office.

“Of course I am. I’m not about to let my crew go down there alone blind. Not while they have to fulfill some half baked reconnaissance plan of a man with an ego the size of Jupiter.” The young Lieutenant nearly choked as she heard what Captain mala uttered.

“Ma’am if you think this plan is bad then why….”

“Why am I following orders?” Mala didn’t stop. Instead she kept walking while Luna hurried to keep up. “It’s simple really. You have to pick the battles you fight.”

“Tell me, do you know why Grimmel is a Commander while I am still a Captain even though we both have the same amount of experience?” Mala asked as they entered the auto-lift at the end of the corridor.

“No ma’am,” Luna answered.

“It’s because I saved the crew once.” Mala stated. “When both of us were still Lieutenants.”

“I don’t understand….” She muttered.

“In order to save the ship and crew from the gravity of a blackhole I ended up quarreling with him when he had the helm. It ended up with me giving him a black eye in front of our then Commander Excellinor.” Mala stated as a matter of fact. “Grimmel’s pride was bruised and just my luck he was the Commander’s favorite pupil. Captain is probably the highest rank I will ever hold now.” She spoke as the lift came to a stop and the doors opened automatically. “What I’m trying to say Lieutenant is that if you need to punch Grimmel in the face do so when no one is around.” Luna walked behind the Captain into the large hangar bay where rows of shuttles were parked. One shuttle in particular stood in the middle on the launchpad. Around it she saw six officers all dressed in the same suit.

Luna wasn’t unfamiliar with the white Bio-suit. It replaced the suits the old Astronauts wore in the 22nd century. It was more shock absorbent, could recycle oxygen which made the use of bulky oxygen tanks attached to the back of the old suits obsolete and came with some other perks as well. Nanotech, a communications array, and a stealth option for more risque missions. One of the officers had given her a suit and she quickly changed into it. The Captain was doing the same. She knew none of her colleagues for the mission yet but when the seventh crewmember stepped out of the shuttle her eyes widened.

“Captain the engines are prepped and we are waiting for your command for departure.” The being that was definitely not human said. Humanoid yes, but not human.

“You… You’re Talarian,” Luna blinked as she said the obvious. The other members of the Exploration team snickered but Mala didn’t call them to order. She too held a smirk.

“I’m sorry. That was insensitive of me,” Luna quickly corrected as she looked at the Talarian. The only alien species humanity had encountered in their Solar system so far. The Talarian was light green skinned and bipedal as well but instead of five fingers on each hand it had only four. Three normal, one opposable. It also walked on slightly raised legs much how a velociraptor would walk and its eyes were a murky yellow.

“You owe me a ration bar Davis,” One of the officers chuckled. “Told ya the newbie would be shocked.”

“Greetings Lieutenant Senna. I am Telmia. The Talarian liason on this vessel.” The alien greeted and held out its appendage to initiate a handshake. Luna acted on autopilot and shook the offered hand before saying “Pleased to meet you, but, excuse me for asking but aren’t the Talarians a race that usually seek solitude? I’ve never met a liaison before on any ship I was stationed on.”

“It’s a fairly new thing Lieutenant Senna,” Telmia answered. “While our race likes its privacy we have also concluded that we wish to deepen our relationship with humanity. Therefore I have been assigned as a bridge between the species. Captain mala was kind enough to volunteer to accomodate my people’s request. I myself asked to be assigned to this mission to observe the planet your ancestors originated from.”

Luna nodded before Mala gave the order to embark. Telmia took the seat of the pilot while Mala took the co-pilot seat. The others were strapped into the back and a petite female officer pulled up a holographic map. “This is Earth when the Genesis ships left the planet.” She said. “As we have no present data to use we have to go with this map. The continents may have shifted somewhat but it should be minimal. At worst we will end up one or two kilometers from our target.”

“What exactly is our target?” Luna asked as she read the nametag on the suit “Sergeant Mendia.”

“Arcadia,” The Sergeant answered. “A former Blackops research facility.” The map zoomed in to show a river valley and a red dot. “Our intelligence confirms that the last communication came from that area. Also the Terraformation rocket was launched from there. It is the most likely area where we would encounter life.”

“We don’t know how the planet developed during the last few centuries.” Davis who was also a Sergeant added. “For all we know a species of giant sandworms or flesh eating plants might dominate the region.”

“We talked about this!” Mendia scolded “it is highly unlikely that any new species developed! The planet was dying when we left it. Those brave souls in Arcadia stayed behind just to ensure the terraformation worked so we would have the chance at a home again.”

“Hey don’t sell the planet short!” Davis retorted. “You might be the biologist but I’m the weapons expert. If it’s going to eat you, then I’ll shoot it!”

Luna looked out of the porthole as the planet that they now couldn’t detect came closer. She had a sinking feeling that something else might be going on but for now she would steel her nerves and face the new ‘old frontier’.

**AN: The plot thickens and more surprises to come. (Yes the addition of the Talarians was in the planning since the 1st book) Oh how I've waited to write this chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 10**

From the porthole she could see the planet coming closer and closer. “So how did you get here?” Davis asked.

“I stated my opinion to a superior then I got transferred.” Luna answered somewhat rigidly. She didn’t know these people at all, so she was being cautious around them. She also noted that Davis wore an additional medic patch on his sleeve.

“Ah, you got balls mate,” An Irish accent answered and Luna looked at the red-headed woman sitting next to the man she had just answered. The lilt of the girl was one she hadn’t heard of. After so many centuries in space accents tended to intermingle. “You wondering bout my accent? I’m from Rhea. My parents, grandparents, great-grandparents were pure Scottish fellows. The accent never faded. I’m Larana and this is my sister Helia. We’re Scouts.”

Luna nodded at the red-headed women. She could see that they were twins. “Don’t mind Helia. She doesn’t talk. She was born mute.”

“Wait… then how does she…” Luna frowned. She didn’t want to be insensitive but verbal communication was a main part of being able to join the army.

“I HAVE A VOICE CODER,” a mechanical voice responded startling Luna. She stared and then noticed the silvery bands running along Helia’s neck. It was a device invented close to the end of the 22nd century. Made entirely out of platinum and several Rare Earth metals. The device was manufactured to synthesise a voice by connecting it to the nervous system and thus the brain. Helia didn’t have to move her mouth at all. The device talked for her.

“That’s amazing. I heard that these devices are quite rare.” Luna remarked and she wasn’t wrong. Since humanity escaped the dying Earth they had fewer resources available to manufacture these types of devices. People would have given an arm, leg and probably their house to just get to use one.

“IT IS ON LOAN FROM THE ARMY SPECIAL R&D DEPARTMENT,” Helia answered. “THEY ARE RESEARCHING THE LONG TERM EFFECTS OF SUCH A DEVICE. AS LONG AS I AM WITH THE ARMY I MAY MAKE USE OF IT.”

“My little sis is one of the best at scouting,” Larana grinned.

“WE ARE ONLY 10 MINUTES APART,” Helia shot back with an exasperated look.

“It still makes you my little sis,” Larana laughed as she pulled up a holographic screen. “Heads up, we’ll begin data gathering in T minus three minutes.”

“The Galileo is now at an altitude of 475000 feet. We are ready for reentry,” The one officer that had remained silent during the flight announced. Luna observed him. He was an older man who already had some greying hairs forming. She read his name patch and raised a brow in surprise “Haddock?! It can’t be!”

“Later girly,” The man responded gruffly before telling their helmsman “Deploying ablative heat shields in 7 seconds,”

“We are 900 miles from our landing target,” Mendia announced. “The Persephone has confirmed that they are tracking our light trail.”

“Sending out first wave of atmospheric probes,” Larana announced as the ship’s lights flickered.

“Is that supposed to happen?” Luna asked as she held onto her chair. She was a bit apprehensive since the lights shouldn’t have flickered upon reentry. The scout ship had an EMP barrier that allowed them to be unaffected from any planet’s Ionosphere.

“No it shouldn’t.” Mala muttered as she quickly pressed several buttons. I’m running a full diagnostic now.”

The lights started flickering more as Sergeant Haddock announced that they were offcourse. “Captain initiate the leftward thrusters at a low pulse for 4 seconds to get us back on course” Telmia said. “We are getting electrical interference that is messing with my controls. Switching off the autopilot.”

“Telmia are you mad?!” Mala’s head jerked to her left to look at the Talarian. “Going manual is….”

“Captain this ship is about to go dark soon judging by how the ionosphere is interacting with our instruments. If we don’t go manual we have no way of even landing.” Telmia uttered. “I need you to trust me right now. I can do this,”

Mala’s lips were set in a straight line as she gave the Talarian an odd look. She then nodded before turning her head to the side to address the crew in the back. “Everyone strap in! We are going to be landing blind!”

“Jesus!” Davis uttered as everyone made sure the seatbelts were properly strapped on them. Luna leaned back as she observed the crew. Davis and Helia had their eyes closed while Larana held her sister’s hand as she reported what she could from her screen.

“Larana release the 2nd and 3rd wave of probes now!” Mala ordered.

“That’s insane Captain!” Larana shouted. “Those probes aren’t made for reentry. They could burn up in the atmosphere and then we’d have nothing!”

“Larana!” Mala shouted “DO IT!”

The red-head pressed some buttons and then announced “2nd and 3rd probe wave deployed. Initiating hexagonal search parameters.”

The lights continued to flicker more and more and Luna shouted in surprise when she saw a small bolt of electricity surge inside the ship. “What is up with this atmosphere?!” Davis asked. “According to everything we know this shouldn’t be happening.”

“My readings suggest that the Ionosphere is superchar-AAH” Mendia shouted as she got shocked by electricity.

“We’ve lost communications with the Persephone,” Mala announced as more and more instruments died. Soon the entire cabin was dark as the ship continued to descend. The blue and green planet of their ancestors was before them on the viewport and they were the blazing ball of metal heading straight towards it.

“Thrusters are offline, radar is offline, telemetry is offline, landing gear is offline…..” Telmia announced as she gripped the steering wheel.

“Telmia for Thor’s sake! Tell me what is not offline!” Mala growled. “I need some good news right now.”

“Good news is that the heat shields are holding and we are not a steaming pot of Dalari stew yet.” Telmia announced. Luna had closed her eyes after activating the helmet of her bio-suit. The others had done the same as they braced for impact. It was nerve wracking for the next few minutes before their scouting ship made contact with the planet’s surface.

When Luna came too she squinted as she found herself staring at a blue sky. “Good to see you awake,” She saw Davis appear above her. With a shaky hand she pressed the button that would disengage her helmet when she saw that he wasn’t wearing one.

“What happened?” Luna then asked as she looked around. She saw that Mendia had a bandaged hand and Captain Mala was taking apart some device. Telmia was seated nearby and still had her helmet on. Luna thought she was probably being cautious with this planet’s atmosphere. Helia, Larana and Haddock were nowhere in sight. On her other side she could see the trail in the dirt that the scouting ship had left as it landed. She then blinked as she realized what she was seeing. “This is dirt! Grass! Trees!” She exclaimed as she suddenly sat up. “Oh my Thor! Those clouds look so white! This is better than any book!”

“Please don’t start kissing the sand like Helia did,” Davis grumbled. “She disliked getting it off her tongue.”

“But this is extraordinary,” Luna uttered. “Seeing all this. It just pales at what we were taught in class.”

“Class? You one of those Highborn kids?” Davis raised a brow as that statement got everyone’s attention.

“Well…… I guess……” Luna said as she looked at the others. “I was until… well……” She then changed the subject by asking “You don’t like highborns?”

“No no!” Davis quickly respond. “I just didn’t expect it. I know Helia and Larana have that background but most of the army is from the lower class. It’s just weird to see another Highborn that is so down to Earth. Yes, pun intended!”

“The social hierarchy that humanity has created in the colonies is very interesting.” Telmia said as she observed. “Our race had such a hierarchy until ‘The Ruin’.”

“It did?” Luna asked with great curiosity.

“Indeed. But our class hierarchy was non-negotiable. You stayed in that assigned class for life. You humans however added a merit system to its workings which allows for any individual that contributes plenty to the colony growth to move up in rank. It is intriguing. If our race had adopted such an aspect to the class system then ‘The Ruin’ might have never happened.” Telmia spoke as she explained her observations.

“What do you mean by that Telmia?” Davis asked. “Wasn’t Titan’s ecosystem destroyed by a planet scale natural disaster.”

“She doesn’t have to tell you if she doesn’t want to,” A gruff voice uttered and Luna and Davis turned to see Sergeant Haddock approaching them while carrying a toolbox. He then turned to Captain Mala and said “The Galileo is shot. No radio, no anything.” he announced. “I can fix it as best as I can but it will take time. Best thing for us is to wait for the search party when we don’t check in.” He then turned back to Luna and Davis. “As for you two. Don’t ask something you don’t want to know.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Luna’s brows shot up as she turned questioningly towards Davis.

“Rumor has it that Haddock had been part of the Sirius exploration team.” Davis explained.

“He was on the team that made first contact with the Talarians?!” Luna’s brows shot up more.

“But all of that is now hush hush.” Davis bent down and then whispered to her “I couldn’t even hack his army records.”

“Jila please don’t…” Telmi frowned while addressing Sergeant Haddock. “It is not like we Talarian’s are keeping it a secret.”

“But you of all people should not have to relive it,” Haddock answered back as Luna and Davis backed off on their questioning. Both could feel something more was the matter here but they decided to drop it. If the Sergeant had been part of the Sirius team than he was more dangerous than he let on.

It was a couple of minutes later when Larana and Helia came back. Luna supposed that they had been sent on a scouting mission.

“We found Arcadia,” Larana announced. “There’s activity,”

**AN: Soooooo, both Harrypanther and I went to see Eps.9 of Star wars. And we both had our opinions on it both the good and the bad. So Harry decided to write her own version. Those that have read or seen her story Ouroboros will know this. I would definitely give it a read :) But she sorta challenged me to create a version of eps9 of my own. Now I ask you my dear readers, would you want me to publish one. With the holiday season it might just end up being a oneshot. The question you need to ask yourselves is.. "What could possibly happen if we let Vala loose in the SW universe?"**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 11**

“Well that’s reassuring,” Luna uttered. “It means we can get help from there.”

“I DO NOT THINK SO,” Helia answered with a frown as she pulled up a holographic image from her wrist interface. The crew stood up and approached the twins to check the intelligence they had gathered. “THE AREA IS HEAVILY FORTIFIED AND THERE ARE PEOPLE PATROLLING. THIS SITUATION IS MUCH MORE DIFFERENT THAN WE HAD INITIALLY THOUGHT.”

“Has Arcadia fallen?” Captain Mala asked with a frown as she looked at the activity the scouts had recorded. “Our intelligence indicated that only three researchers where living there up to the time the terraformation rocket was launched.”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Davis said as he picked up some of his equipment. “They obviously heard the crash so we are sitting ducks here. It’s highly likely that they aren’t friendlies.”

“Davis don’t get all trigger happy. For all we know these people are no threat.” Mendia warned. “They’ve been living on a planet with minimal resources.”

“I’ll consider anything hostile until proven otherwise,” Davis shot back. “You’re too soft Mendia.”

“Captain,” Telmia spoke up. “While it is good to hear that there are so many survivors on the planet I would err on the side of caution as well. I agree with Sergeant Davis’s assessment. We should treat this as a hostile situation until we can assess the natives’ intentions.”

Mala groaned as she had a decision to make. First contact was hard. They couldn’t go in guns blazing without assessing the situation and they couldn’t appear unarmed in front of the inhabitants even if they were the same race. Either option would put her team at risk. “For now we’ll camouflage ourselves and observe the ones that come investigate.”

Meanwhile back at Berk the crash had sent the Berkians into a frenzy. Weapons were being distributed and the guards were on high alert.

“Okay who ruined my beauty sleep?” Dagur asked as he came outside and saw the commotion.

“You’ll need more than sleep to get any beauty,” Camicazi uttered with a roll of her eyes as she too had been woken up. The other delegates were up as well and many were also armed to the teeth now.

“Is it another attack?” Madguts asked as he cocked his shotgun.

“By who? We’re all here.” Heather muttered as she glared at the somewhat triggerhappy Chief.

“We’re forming a search party right now. Some of our guards detected movement in the shrubs nearby.” Hiccup approached them.

“Woohoo search party!” Dagur exclaimed.

“Uhm….. actually……” Hiccup mumbled “Maybe you guys should stay here,”

“Aaauuuw but I want to go search!” Dagur whined. “Brother pleaseeeeeeee!” And there were the sad puppy dog eyes. Hiccup took a step back as Dagur kept pleading.

“What are you? Five?” Heather rolled her eyes at her brother’s antics. “Let the Berkians do their thing. This is their place and we’re just guests.”

“But sis!!!!” Dagur uttered. “It’s a search party! I haven’t been in a search party since we chased the grain thief!”

“Oh my Thor you are incorrigible!” Heather groaned as Camicazi stifled a laugh.

“Hiccup are you coming or what?!” Astrid shouted from atop the ATV. She had an axe strapped to her back and was a bit more excited than she should be. Hiccup supposed it was because there was hardly any action lately and according to Astrid her axe needed a good workout. It was usually Mulch and Bucket who got the brunt of that axe when she was sparring.

Toothless was also atop an ATV with Hookfang while Windshear was in a jeep with Snotlout and the twins. Hiccup had to do a double take because he thought he saw Ruffnut brandishing a crossbow. Hiccup got on the ATV that Astrid was driving while the second jeep contained Gobber and Fishlegs.

“Fish any idea on what we’re dealing with?” Gobber asked as the search party set out. Hiccup could see Stormfly in one of the lookout towers armed to the teeth. She gave them a little wave before looking back through a set of binoculars.

“I have no clue. Several alarms sounded in the Control Center but they weren’t ones we saw before.” Fishlegs explained over the roar of the jeep engine.

“Which ones lit up?” Astrid now asked as she rode closer to the jeep.

“The long range atmospheric sensor and the Ion detector.” Fishlegs summed up and Astrid actually cursed prompting everyone to look at her. Even Toothless was curious now.

“We’re going to need to be very careful,” Astrid announced. “The thing that crashed was likely a ship from up there.”

“The clouds?” Tuffnut asked before Ruffnut smacked him on the back of the head.

“Space you dingus!” She uttered. “Space!”

“Ooooh…. Wait… Don’t call me a dingus you trollface!” Tuffnut shot back.

“How dare you call me a trollface you lardbrain!” Ruffnut now shouted before punching her brother.

“DO NOT MAKE ME TURN THIS JEEP AROUND!” Windshear warned as she sent a glare to the twins. Miraculously the twins quieted down. No one wanted to get on Windshear’s bad side while she was driving. Hiccup remembered a year ago when she had left Stoick and Mildew in the middle of nowhere when they were arguing nonstop and getting on her nerves.

“Alrighty, you guys know the drill. We’ll split up and search the area in groups of two. Don’t lose sight of your teammates.” Gobber announced as they were nearing the grassy area where their scouts saw movement. Gobber and Fishlegs would continue on in the Jeep. The same went for Windshear and Snotlout. The twins disembarked and started heading towards the right side. Hookfang and Toothless went towards the left on their ATV while Hiccup and Astrid went up the valley cliff.

“Astrid what makes you think it’s a spaceship?” Hiccup asked as they were nearly on the cliff where they would get a good overview of the area.

“The Ion detector. It was designed to track objects that give off a faint Ion trail.” Astrid explained. “If the thing was just a meteorite then only the atmospheric sensor would have detected it. And it looks like I was right.” Astrid said as she pointed at something on the horizon. Hiccup’s brows shot up as he saw the long trail up upturned earth, smoke and what distinctly looked like a small metallic ship, or the remains of one.

“Gobber, Windshear come in.” Hiccup used their radio. “We’ve spotted the remains of a ship North East of where you guys are. Approach with caution.” There was some static over the radio but Hiccup heard both Gobber and Windshear give an affirmative.

“We should go too,” Astrid said as she revved the ATV before turning it around. “If it has an Ion trail then there is bound to be a pilot and crew.” They were on their way down when Toothless radioed in.

“We might have some movement here,” Toothless announced. “Hookfang and I are going to investigate.”

“We’re at the crash site,” Gobber announced over their radio. “It looks abandoned. Windshear and Snotlout went to take a look inside.”

While Astrid and Hiccup made their way towards the site, Toothless and Hookfang had parked the ATV and were scouting the area on foot.

“I see nothing,” Hookfang announced as he peered behind another shrub. They were in an area that had some older trees that were planted years ago. These trees were already pretty big so the ATV couldn’t go through as easily.

“I’m telling you, there’s something here.” Toothless muttered. “I have this gut feeling.”

“You and your gut feeling.” Hookfang huffed. “The last time you had a gut feeling I nearly ended up underneath a chandelier!”

“That was one time! One time!” Toothless pouted. He stopped and took out his gun when he heard some rustling. Hookfang did the same thing as they saw a shrub rustle not too far away from them. With guns aimed they carefully approached the rustling shrub. Hookfang wordlessly indicated for Toothless to take the left while he took the right side. Slowly the pair approached the bush. The tension was high as their fingers were on the trigger. Slowly with bated breath Toothless pushed some of the leaves away to reveal a squirrel that dashed past them out of fright.

“I hate those things,” Hookfang grumbled as he held a hand over his heart. “Why did Astrid even decide to clone them. Stupid rodents…..”

Toothless too had been taken by surprise by the squirrel and he leaned back against one of the larger trees. “You and your gut feeling,” Hookfang then grumbled. Toothless pouted but then looked up when he heard a branch breaking above him.

“What in the-AAAAH” Toothless shouted as something white fell on top of him along with the branch. The scream of that something happened to be distinctly female and he looked up in surprise at clear sky-blue eyes. The moment lasted for only a few seconds as the mysterious woman got up and before Hookfang could get her in his crosshairs. She then pushed something on her white suit and disappeared before their eyes.

“THE HELL WAS THAT!” Hookfang shouted as he blinked at where the woman stood moments ago.

“An angel,” Toothless sighed dreamily.

**AN: The first extinction of 2020 has been announced. As of 5 days ago the Chinese Paddlefish (Psephurus gladius), the world's largest freshwater fish (reaching up to 23 feet in length) has been declared officially extinct after no live specimens were seen since 2003. The fish species had been around for approximately 200 million years, surviving the meteorite that killed off the dinosaurs as well as several ice ages. It however could not survive humans. Overfishing as well as dam construction (which cut the fish off from it's spawning habitat in the late 70's) were the cause of its demise.**   
  



	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 12**

Luna bit her lip as she was camouflaged with the surrounding area. She wasn’t far from the two men and she couldn’t actually move. While the suit offered her stealth it did nothing to conceal the crunch of footsteps on sand.

“An angel?” She overheard the redhead ask with a roll of his eyes. The skepticism was clear as day. “Now I know you have a concussion.”

“Hey!” The other on the ground exclaimed before getting up. Luna inched back so he wouldn’t brush against her. Her step back however caused her to step on a twig. She mentally screamed as the men were alert again. This was not going well. They had guns, which was more firepower than they had expected from a planet that had been abandoned. During her schooling it was often reiterated year after year during history classes that the people left on Earth, after all these centuries, had devolved back to the Stone age. Now Luna knew that was wrong. She wanted to kick her robotic teacher in the circuit boards. ‘Did humanity make up the devolution so that they could feel better about themselves for abandoning this planet?’ she asked herself as the men looked around.

Her eyes widened when a suspicious sound was heard further away. “What was that?” She saw the redhead ask as he looked and aimed his weapon in that direction. She then felt someone grabbing her arm. She saw no one but was dragged back quickly to a safe distance. Luna tried to stifle her surprise as Mendia deactivated her stealth suit to appear before her.

“What the hell were you thinking?!” Mendia asked in an angry whisper. “If the Captain hears about this…..”

“I’m sorry!” Luna whispered back. “I was in my assigned area when I took notice of their gear. They had greater firepower than I imagined. I panicked.”

“That still doesn’t excuse you from breaking stealth protocol. If I hadn’t been here they would have gotten you!” Mandia growled once she was sure they were safe.

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” Luna retorted. “The tree seemed like a good place to hide. I didn’t expect my stealth suit to have been damaged and the branch to give out!”

“This is a mess,” Mendia groaned. “Now that they know we are camouflaged they will take precautions.”

Mendia’s built-in shortwave radio activated and both women could hear Mala’s order. “Everyone, we have a situation. Regroup at our designated rally point. Observation status is over.”

“This can’t be good.” Mendia hissed and then frowned. She grabbed Luna’s arm to check the suit’s built-in computer. “The radio’s fried as well. You should have gotten the same message I had.”

“You think the electric shocks had anything to do with it?” Luna asked as both women slipped away from the area.

“We’ll have to ask Larana. She has the probe data.” Mendia stated. “For now let’s go see what’s going on.”

Luna’s eyes widened as she saw most of the team crouched low behind shrubbery while watching the scene that unfolded before them near the crash site. “What happened?” She asked in a whisper. Surprisingly it was Telmia who answered and not Mala.

“Jila did something stupid again,” The Talarian muttered with some exasperation in her voice. She said something under her breath that Luna didn’t catch but if trusting her suspicions then Telmia and Haddock had a history together. The alien ambassador called Haddock Jila but his first name on his suit started with an ‘S’. She immediately thought ‘a nickname perhaps?’.

The scene before them was chaotic. Sergeant Haddock had one of the female inhabitants sporting short hair slung over his right shoulder like a sack of potatoes while he dragged a shorter muscular male by the back of his collar. That one was screaming up a storm and trashing his limbs.

“Snotlout calm the hell down!” Luna saw a blond woman order. She had an axe while the other three men surrounding the sergeant held guns.

“Drop the lass and we won’t shoot ya!” the chubby man with the blonde braided mustache shouted. Luna was at a loss for words and things got worse when the two men that nearly caught her arrived too. More guns were trained on their team member and things were spiraling out of control.

“I told him to leave those two,” Davis growled. “Damn goody two-shoes.”

“We have to defuse the situation before anyone gets hurt,” Mala announced as she noticed the lanky auburn aired one trying to calm his friends down by saying the man they had the two didn’t seem armed. “I’m going out there,”

“Are you serious?!” Davis asked incredulously. His Captain however was already standing up and walking out of the shrub. Davis cursed and kept his hand on his gun as Mala walked towards the agitated group. They took notice of her quickly and two guns and an axe were trained on her in no time.

“Who are you?” The blonde woman asked with narrowed eyes.

“I am Captain Mala of the United Terran fleet.” She introduced herself. “That man over there is a subordinate of mine.”

“Well your subordinate has two of ours,” The portly blond young man stated.

“I’m sure he has a valid reason for it,” Mala tried to keep her demeanor calm and nonthreatening. She was sure Davis probably already had them in his sights if anything went wrong. She, as Captain, had to negotiate these hostile situations. “Perhaps we can talk about this calmly?” She asked hoping that these people would be reasonable. From what she had seen so far they cared for the safety of their companions.

“We can talk about it if he puts down our friends and steps away,” The auburn haired one stated. Mala looked at them for a moment before motioning to her Sergeant to drop the woman and to let go of the other who had surprisingly been silent after the blonde had yelled at him. Haddock stepped away and those that had their guns trained on him lowered their weapons.

“Hiccup ya think this is a good idea?” She heard the blonde woman ask who was still looking at Mala with distrust.

“If the guy wanted to kill Snotlout and Windshear he would have done it already,” The one named Hiccup said. Mala was observing them and quickly learned some of their names as they spoke while checking on their friends. She also wondered what happened since she had ordered Davis and Haddock to stay near the ship camouflaged. She gave Sergeant Haddock a look when everyone had calmed down enough to have a decent talk. According to Mala’s observations the one named Hiccup seemed the most reasonable. The one they called Fishlegs was inquisitive but a bit more skeptical. She couldn’t read the older man who she heard being called Gobber and the blond woman who was keeping an eye on her with unveiled suspicion seemed to be Astrid. The redhead and the other black-haired man gave off a vibe that made Mala think of hardened soldiers. She had seen those eyes before. She had yet to learn their names though as they kept to themselves, their hands on their weapons and close enough to the trigger if anything were to happen. ‘Davis would get along swimmingly with them,’ was a stray thought that floated past.

“Windshear what happened?” Mala heard Fishlegs ask once the woman came to.

“I don’t know exactly,” The platinum blonde muttered while rubbing the back of her neck. “Snot and I were checking the interior of the ship. I was in the cockpit.” She begins to explain. “I heard Snot said something along the lines of come look at this and when I turned around something knocked me out. I didn’t even have a chance to draw a knife.”

The entire group gathered there turned to look at Snotlout whom seemed to be pouting. “Whaaaaaat!” Snotlout exclaimed. “Why are you guys looking at me as if it is my fault?!”

“Cause sometimes it is Snot,” Fishlegs groaned. “What happened?”

“I don’t know!” Snotlout huffed. “I find this weird-looking do-hicky and I flip a random switch. It starts glowing. Next thing I know that…. THAT GORILLA!...” Snotlout dramatically gestured to the Sergeant “Had Windshear over his shoulder, grabbed me by the back of my shirt, flipped the switch again and hauled us out of there!!!”

All eyes now turned to the older man in question. He seemed rather calm for someone who just had more than four firearms pointed at him. Hiccup looked at Toothless who could have probably taken the shot if needed. He must have felt like those two weren’t in any immediate danger from that stranger.

“The short loud one activated the ship’s Prolium core,” The man said. “It’s damaged. A minute more and they would have been vaporized.”  
“Wait…. Prolium? As in refined Dark Matter??!!” Astrid exclaimed as her eyes widened. “HOW IN THE SAM GREAT HILL OF YAKS DID HUMANITY GET REFINED DARK MATTER?!’ She then screeched.

“Astrid don’t shout,” Hiccup cringed since he had been standing right next to her.

“Hiccup how can I not shout?!” She grabbed Hiccup by the shoulders and shook him. “Prolium exists! It shouldn’t even be possible for humans to produce it. Given humanity’s technological evolution timeline it would take at least another 3000 years before they reach that capability!” Astrid then turned towards Mala and her subordinate and asked “How much Prolium is in that core?”

“About a liter,” Mala answered while wondering how this woman knew of Prolium.

Everyone was silent as they watched Astrid digest the information. “That would be the equivalent of 13 nuclear warheads.”

Snotlout now gulped as he realized that he probably shouldn’t have touched that switch.


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 13**

There was an awkward silence after Astrid’s statement. Gobber was the one to break it with the question “So, what do we do now?” No one actually knew and they looked towards Astrid since she had made the outburst and thus seemed the most knowledgeable of the group.

“You said the Prolium core was damaged. Is there any chance of leakage?” Astrid asked after a minute. The others could pretty much infer that Dark Matter leakage was a really big no-no and they unconsciously took a step back from the downed shuttle.

“No leakage as of yet,” the Sergeant spoke up “Though I would not recommend turning it on. The containment unit’s internal shielding is at only 34 percent.”

“Gobber radio in that we’ll need a containment team here immediately.” Astrid said. “If that internal shielding fails we’ll have a problem on our hands.”

“Astrid maybe you could explain a bit,” Hiccup said. “I’m really confused.”

“You’re not the only one laddie,” Gobber muttered but did radio in back to New Berk.

It was here that Mala took a gamble and asked “May I call in the rest of my team? I think it would be better if we all got to know each other.”

“There’s more of you?!” Snotlout uttered.

“Of course there probably are you nimrod,” Windshear grumbled. “You saw how many seats that shuttle could hold.”

“Well why didn’t you say something the first time?!” Snotlout shot back.

“Because they aren’t being hostile you dolt!” Windshear shot back. “I’ve seen pure hostility and hatred and they don’t give off that vibe so excuse me for giving the benefit of the doubt!” Snotlout was quiet at that outburst as most in the group knew the life Windshear had led under the Red Death. As a result she was one of the best at judging character.

“Call them but any funny business and…..” Astrid left the threat open to interpretation and watched as Mala gave a few hand signals towards the bushes she had come from.

Astrid’s hand flew to the handle of her axe and the others trained their guns and crossbows on the group when they caught sight of Telmia. “Don’t shoot!” Mala quickly uttered. “She’s a friendly!”

“What…... is she?” Fishlegs asked as he lowered his gun somewhat while curiosity overcame him. He didn’t let his guard drop completely but as there were no hostile actions by this ‘alien’ he had to ask.

“She’s Talarian,” Mala explained as Telmia kept her hands up and made no movement. “Her race are the original inhabitants of Titan,”

“Oh my Thor, an actual alien,” Snotlout muttered.

“This is……. Unbelievable,” Gobber added and then addressed the alien in question. “Uhm… hello?”

“Greetings,” Telmia replied. “Please be at ease, I mean no harm.”

Mala observed the group of natives and watched them silently communicate with each other. It was only movements of the head and brows but it felt like they were having a full blown conversation. Such understanding could only happen if they had been together for a long long time.

“Guys lower your guns,” Mala heard the one called Hiccup say. It seemed he had especially directed this order to the two men that acted more like soldiers than the rest of them. The red-head had looked the most reluctant as he shot the group of space travelers a suspicious look but he did stand down.

“You all seem to take my appearance much better than your spacefaring counterparts did,” Telmia observed and then asked “Why is that?”

“Let’s see…..” Hiccup said as he began to tick off events that had happened over the years since they found Arcadia. “Living in a wasteland with little food and clean water, sand pirates, secret bases, mad scientists, cloning, nanotechnology, cerebral removal, a murderous AI, a yak rebellion, mind-controlling-harem-establishing woman, more secret bases, the occasional cannibal, space conspiracies…… I think that meeting an alien at this point is just normal.”

Captain Mala and her group blinked as they heard the list. They quite frankly didn’t know what to make of this. “Wait, you said space conspiracies,” Luna spoke up which caused eyes to fall on her. Toothless especially was watching her and Hookfang had to close his friend’s mouth. Hiccup noticed and wondered what that was about. He’d have to ask Toothless later.

“I think we should talk about this back at base for more details,” Gobber announced. “Stoick is sending Ack and the others to help contain and salvage the shuttle.” He then looked at the middle-aged man that had dragged Snotlout and Windshear out “You think you can help them with it Mr…..”

“Haddock,” The Sergeant replied and none of Mala’s crew expected the outbursts of “WHAT! NO WAY! THE KRANKING HELL!.....” at the mention of that name.

“There’s no way these natives could know about the events surrounding him, right? Even we don’t know everything.” Luna asked with a frown. Davies, Mendia and the others were also shocked and the man in question himself blinked, not knowing what was going on.

“Ooh Thor, am I in the Twilight Zone?!” Snotlout uttered as he looked between the older man and Hiccup he could see some similarities.

“I think…….” Hiccup mumbled. “This may take a bit longer than we thought.” He too wanted to get to the bottom of this strange occurance.

“Wait…….” Gobber said, “Where are the twins?”

Meanwhile, onboard the T.S.S. Pandora, Grimmel was growing more and more impatient. They and the Persephone had been orbiting Earth for a good eight hours now and still their sensors hadn’t picked up any data.

“Report,” He said and one of his bridge crew approached him.

“Sir, the readings are staying the same as when we first arrived. Updates from the Persephone state that they managed to track the exploration shuttle halfway through the Ionosphere but lost sight of it after an anomalous electromagnetic flare was generated. The shuttle was able to launch its drones though we have no idea if the crew survived or if the drones are still intact.” The man reported as he kept some distance from his commanding officer. “Currently the Persephone is busy trying to connect to these drones to see if they have any special data recorded.”

“And this….. Anomalous electromagnetic flare?” Grimmel asked with a frown. “Do we have any sensors on Sol to see if it will reoccur?”

“Sir…. the flare did not originate from this system’s sun. We initially thought that as well but there has been no heavy Solar flare activity.” The officer reported. This got Grimmel’s attention. “Our sensors managed to pick up the flare. It seems highly likely to have been generated by the planet’s Ionosphere.”

“That’s impossible!” Grimmel uttered. The very notion that the simple Ionosphere of a planet could generate an electromagnetic pulse equal to that of a Coronal Mass Ejection was unheard of. It was simply against the known Laws of Physics. “Send out the Carrington drones to monitor both the solar and Ionosphere activity.” he ordered. This was beyond strange and may likely have something to do with them not being able to scan the planet.

“Sir, the Persephone has already deployed their Carrington drones.” The officer reported. “So far there are no more anomalous flares being generated. They are currently waiting for the 72 hour communications window to close. If they do not hear from the Exploration team a Rescue team will be dispatched as per protocol.”

Grimmel nodded as his lips pursed. 72 hours was a long wait. He didn’t need to be on the bridge until called so he stood up and ordered. “Contact Dr. Griselda and have her meet me in my office.”

“Sir, yes Sir,” The officer saluted.

When Grimmel entered his office quarters he turned on the light to see a woman with amber eyes and light brown hair sitting there behind his desk and sipping his very expensive tea. “Griselda what did I tell you about breaking into my office?”

“What did I tell you about going easy on my Deathgripper squad?” She retorted. “They are still unstable,”

“Does that look like my problem?” Grimmel growled and smacked the Doctor’s feet off his desk. “They are your creations afterall.”

“You know very well what I mean!” Griselda shot back. “I need HIM!”

Grimmel sighed. Griselda’s obsession was showing again. She was a brilliant researcher with a ‘slightly’ sadistic side and very little morals. To her everything was about science. The Deathgrippers were one of her creations, efficient but somewhat unstable. Four had already succumbed over the years in space. “Grimmel come on, I just need a smidge of his blood! We’ve known where he’s been holed up for years now.”

“Griselda you can’t,” Grimmel grounded out. “The Council will have your head if you touch him. He’s under their protection.”

“But you know one of the Council’s most powerful members,” Griselda argued. “Surely you could pull some strings,”

“_Griselda……_” Grimmel warned. “I did not call you here to talk about HIM. I need you to analyze the electromagnetic flare data and…..”

“And find out how a planet can generate such a charge. Been there, done that,” The woman shrugged causing Grimmel to raise a brow.

“I’m assuming you have a theory,”

“Don’t I always?” Griselda smirked. “I’m thinking the flares are artificial,”

“And your reasoning?” Grimmel responded but Griselda merely shrugged. “Damnit tell me!”

“I’m not one of your little subordinates Grimmel,” She said and patted his cheek. “You ordering me around does nothing,”

“Then what do you want?” Grimmel then asked. Griselda had her moods. It was one of the things Grimmel found a bit irritating. She was the head of his science department but was never an official member of the United Terran fleet which put her outside his chain of command. When Grimmel asked that a smirk could be seen on the edges of Griselda’s mouth. That could never be good.

**AN: Hiya everyone. I hadn't forgotten about this fic. It took me a bit of time to get out of my writersblock for this plot but I'M BACK!. Also some of you may have noticed me introducing the name Carrington in this chapter. Now here is a fun fact. I'm assuming most of you already know about Solar flares and how they are generated, if not then feel free to look them up. They are quite interesting. Now onto my little name game. You guys all heard of Solar flares but do you know of Carrington flares? Solar flares take days to reach the Earth and affect the magnetosphere. Carrington flares however are Solar flares that are very very fast and can reach the Earth in around 17-20 hours. The reason these flares are so fast is because they 'piggyback' on an already existing flare, reducing travel time. That would be the easiest way to describe it. Richard Carrington was just your average astronomer who in 1859 discovered the existence of solar flares and their influence on the Earth. That was all for this little informative AN. See y'all next time!!!! **


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 14**

After Griselda left, Grimmel sat in his office deep in thought. When he reached for the tea he had made and took a sip he found that it had grown cold. Looking at the clock on his work console he noted that he had been debating his thoughts for nearly three hours. He also noted a communique had come in from the Council. Clicking on it he came face to face with the pre-recorded image of Grand Admiral Excellinor.

“_Greetings Commander Grimmel,_” The message began. _“I hope this message finds you well. The contents that will be discussed are for your eyes only and will not be repeated. Protocol 31 will be in effect._”

Grimmel nodded even though it was a recording. No one could observe him anyways. Protocol 31 was considered to be used only in the highest classification of documents. It basically meant that the message never happened and that the UTF operating system would be scrubbed completely of any logs containing this message. There was no pause in the message as the Grand Admiral gave her customary congratulations for reaching Terra. When that was over the real information started playing. “_The Council has come to an impasse. Our original goal was to deliver Terra to the hands of the Talarians in exchange for the Slipstream technology they currently possess. Your investigation here is critical.” The Grand Admiral stated. “If no intelligent lifeforms are found on the planet, as I suspect they won’t be, then the Talarians get Terra to rebuild their civilization. If intelligent lifeforms are discovered then humanity will take control of Terra and guide it into the new age. You know which results my faction hopes for Commander Grimmel. See that you do not disappoint me. Humanity must never settle back on Terra for they will become complacent and devoid of ambition to chart the galaxies._”

Grimmel knew what was at stake. He had often had this conversation with the Grand Admiral and he agreed with her. Over the centuries since humanity stepped into space on the Genesis ships there had been a sort of desperation. At first there was panic from the populous that had made it into the great vacuum but slowly they acclimated to life in the vast unknown. The humans that went into space had a sort of drive to them that made them strive to be their very best. It was not the will to live but the will to survive. The people had put their lives on the line as to their knowledge they were the last of their kind. Science reached new heights during that age as the people settled into the colony worlds.

Yet there was unease. There were failures to life support systems, crops withered, drought at times had been imminent. There were times where social unrest was at its highest yet the people that took the journey into space banded together to solve their problems. Many colonists dreamed of returning to their homeworld. Centuries passed and the return to Terra slowly faded from people’s minds. They had other things to worry about and the planet of their ancestors began to slowly fade into myth. This had been the strength of their forefathers. The strength they had cultivated.

But like all governing bodies, there was a difference of opinion. Within the colony worlds there existed two factions. One faction yearned to go back to their home planet and rewrite the wrongs they had visited upon it in history. This faction believed that there must have been survivors that had had enough resources to survive and possibly thrive. That they were intelligent and hopeful of change. The other faction also believed that there were survivors but that these ‘natives’ had devolved into savage creatures that only went with the creed of ‘survival of the fittest’ and practiced barbaric rituals. It was the most prevalent hypothesis among the masses of the colonies. The natives of Terra were no longer considered sentient and part of the human race. This faction also believed that returning to settle on their home planet would make humanity weak and thus unable for future generations to bear the harshness of space exploration.

Grimmel was about to initiate the erasure protocol when he noted that there was a postscript added to the message. He clicked on it and watched the Grand Admiral appear again. “_There has been a recent shift in ideology within the colonies that cannot be tolerated_.” The Grand Admiral expressed with a grimace. “_The other faction seems to be gaining in popularity as the expedition to Terra had been made public. I will not stress this more. We need to show these heathens the folly of their ways. Prove to all that we must rid ourselves of the chains of Terra. I have managed to keep the other faction at bay for now by discreetly transferring the granddaughter of the faction’s leader to your ship. Grand Admiral Senna will not make a move against us as long as his granddaughter remains safe._” Grimmel gulped as he realized that he should have recognized that last name. “_Commander, you have my full trust. I expect you to prioritize the safety of Lieutenant Senna. While she is our secret hostage she is also our opportunity. If you can convert her to our faction then hefty rewards await you upon your journey home._”

Grimmel sat alone in his office and gulped heavily as the message finally ended and erased itself. He had realized what he had done and how he had screwed himself over. The only thing now for him was to pray that the Exploration team hadn’t perished.

“That Grimmel person is pretty dumb,” One of the girls remarked, interrupting the story.

“And what was with that lady doctor of his? She seems really scary,” The other added. “Granny was she worse than the Hoffersons?”

“Now now,” The old woman sighed. “I can’t just go give you guys spoilers.”

This caused the girls to look at each other, nodding simultaneously, and coming to the conclusion that, yes, this Griselda was equal if not worse to the Hoffersons.

“Now do you girls want me to stop here or should I continue until we land?” The grandmother asked with a mischievous grin. Of course, the girls wouldn’t want to stop the story and she was right when one of them exclaimed: “Granny come on! We want to know what happened to Hiccy and the rest!”

“Yeah, Granny!” The other girl also spoke up. “You made it seem like the Talarians were bad guys just now! That can’t be true right?!”

“Well, then why don’t we take a look at what happened on Hiccup and Astrid’s side.” The elderly woman said. “Now I’ve heard many versions of what happened next. A lot of historians had embellished the events over the decades, making it seem like some grand ceremony was held when the spacefaring and Earth-inhabiting humans met for the first time. True, this meeting was the turning point for the destinies of both types of humans but it wasn’t a grand affair. In fact there was much more mystery surrounding the appearance of another Haddock.”

“So what happened next granny?” The girls asked as they eagerly awaited the next part of the story.

Hiccup stared for a moment at some of the spacefaring humans. Honestly, he thought that they were weird. And he knew he was weird as he apparently was the base model for other Berkians on ‘being weird’. Sure his inventions over the years raised eyebrows, mainly Mildew’s, but they worked…….. Sometimes. This was just………

“Hiccup ya sure about these people?” Stoick asked as he put a hand on Hiccup’s shoulder while watching. They had used two of the Jeeps of the salvage crew to transport their guests to New Berk where the ambassadors of the other tribes were also curious to meet them. Word had gotten around after Gobber radioed in. Of course like any sane leader Stoick wasn’t about to trust them immediately. If living in the wastelands taught you one thing it was to have a gun ready even when facing a friend. Especially when food was involved. No these people were weird, with their clothing, manners, speech and even behaviour. The reason everyone was watching them right now was because three of the guests had latched themselves onto Mulch’s sheeps and were stroking, squishing, floofing the wool with so much gusto it threw the Berkians off. Mulch muttered that his poor sheep must be traumatized by now.

The people in question who had been taken with these animals were none other than Mendia, who wanted to feel a sheep from a purely biological perspective, or so she said, Helia, who thought they were adorable, and Luna, who didn’t actually want to feel the sheep but was dragged into it by Mendia. Captain Mala watched her team and let out a groan. This was not the time to be hugging animals but it did catch the natives off guard as well and it gave her some time to observe.

“Fascinating,” Telmia observed. “I had not known that humans would be so fascinated with these soft creatures.” The Talarian took a step forward, approaching a stray sheep that had been munching on some grass. However the sheep startled, taking notice of her, and backed away. “I wish to feel these creatures too,”

“You don’t have them where you’re from?” Heather, the first one at the camp to speak to the Talarian, asked in curiosity. She and the others had been shocked when they were introduced to Telmia as they never imagined there to be much life brewing outside their planet. Though, the ambassadors as well as the Berkians saw past Telmia’s race and observed her. When in the wastelands you didn’t have much time to ponder if a person was trustworthy or would stab you in the back at a moment’s notice. Her non-aggressive actions were enough for them to calm down.

“I have not,” Telmia admitted. “On Titan we now live deep within it’s crust. The atmosphere cannot sustain us anymore and all surface creatures perished. This was mainly due to our own actions which we now realize had been a grievous mistake. Only the deep Kiirion moss in the caves saved us from starvation.”

Heather was quite shocked to hear that. She hadn’t expected the first aliens’ humans met to have such a tragic past. It seemed almost parallel to what happened on Earth and it tugged at her heart a bit. She too took joy in seeing the animals New berk brought to life so she rolled up her sleeves and stared down at the lone sheep. Heather took one last look at Telmia who was also looking at her in curiosity. With a smirk she said “Well if you want to wrangle a sheep I will show you how,”

“BAAAAAA,” Was the last thing the sheep said as Heather dove towards it while Stoick facepalmed.

**AN: I've been getting cabin fever. This may not end well for any of the characters *waves ** **axe***


	16. Chapter 16

**Chapter 15**

The spacefarers were absconded into the depths of New Berk after the whole sheep incident. Stoick had several of his men escort the newcomers to the first level of the facility where they were given several spare rooms that they would need to share since the population of New Berk was expanding and they also had to house the delegates from the other tribes. The rooms were all connected to the common area and that was where Mala’s team met up again.

“This is…..” Davis mumbled.

“Incredible?” Luna interjected.

“Suspicious,” The man corrected. “It’s all too suspicious. How could our data have been so wrong?”

“I would think this to be a joyous occasion,” Telmia now added her two cents. “Instead of three scientists we have encountered a civilization that against all odds is starting to thrive again. From the data on this facility we might infer that these people are directly responsible for the flora and fauna that is returning to the planet. Them hosting several delegates from other areas also shows that they are open-minded to negotiations and possess some measure of diplomacy.”

“Yes but where are the three scientists that were supposed to reside here?” Davis then muttered “When I asked that every one of them clammed up.”

“I’m willing to give these people the benefit of the doubt,” Mala stated as eyes fell on her. “They’ve given us that by not shooting us on sight. We might be missing some vital information and if we can come to a mutual agreement it would benefit both sides.”

“I couldn’t have said it better myself,” The sliding doors to the common room opened with a hiss to admit Hiccup, Astrid and the one they seemed to call Toothless. Only Toothless seemed to be armed and took his place by the door right behind Hiccup. Astrid was carrying a tablet and the group just realized that they had been overheard.

“So you heard us,” Mendia asked with a frown. “Granted this is a common area so no privacy is expected, I'd still want to know why.”

“Wouldn’t you have done the same if the tables were turned?” Astrid raised a brow. “We have no idea of your motives and seeing as that little ship of yours was probably just for scouting then there should be an even bigger one up there.” Astrid pointed at the ceiling but everyone got the picture. “It’s a logical conclusion as the ship we salvaged doesn’t seem to be made for long term travel.”

Luna was watching the exchange as her Captain now said something. Though she didn’t hear it as her eyes were drawn to the black-haired soldier by the door. He seemed very protective of the one they called Hiccup she noted but she could also see him glancing at her at times. This caused the woman to frown. Sure she had landed on him but that wouldn’t have been enough to draw so much attention.

“.... we come to some agreement?” She managed to catch the tail end of Captain Mala’s question as both Hiccup and the blond woman nodded.

“A question for a question,” the woman said. “If you appear to be honest and have no ill intentions then you will receive the same clearance as the visiting delegates.”

“Are you allowed to make that decision?” Helia now asked with a frown.

“I am,” Astrid said but she didn’t elaborate on it further.

“As a show of good faith why don’t you guys ask the first question.” Hiccup suggested as he and Astrid took seats opposite to Captain Mala. Luna could still feel eyes on her but tried to focus on the discussion.

“Our data indicated that there were three scientists originally inhabiting this facility.” Mala stated. “What happened to them?”

“Dead,” Astrid huffed. “And we are all better for it.”

Shock rang through Mala’s group and it was Larana that spoke up with the question “How can you be so blase about it?!”

“Sadly as their daughter I can be as indifferent about that as I want.” Astrid huffed. “You have no clue of the events that happened five years ago.”

“Then please enlighten us,” Mala now said. “I know you don’t have to but we would like to know how Council sanctioned scientists met their end.” Astrid scoffed at Mala’s use of the term ‘Council sanctioned’ but Hiccup stopped her before she would say anything more. He inclined his head to the blond and told her that he would explain it a bit. The following twenty minutes were the most incredulous of Luna’s life. She had heard of a lot of atrocities but that the three scientists were responsible for the deaths of their colleagues while experimenting on them by taking out their brains and the subsequent creation of Johann and Astrid as well as the murder of Drago and that they consciously, and with the knowledge of the Council, were ready to wipe out all life on Terra was the most shocking. Her hands clenched and she might have drawn some blood as she was thinking that there could be no possible way that her grandfather would have approved such a plan. She however didn’t voice any of this because she felt that them knowing that her grandfather was on the Council they appeared to hate would only enrage these natives more and may even stop any further sharing of information. So Luna kept her mouth shut and looked at the others. All wore incredulous expressions and even Captain Mala seemed to have lost her composure at the news.

“Do you just ask us to just believe that story?” Davis then asked.

“No, of course not,” Hiccup sighed. “We have managed to retrieve most of the original recorded data of the events five years ago from the computer mainframe. If you don’t believe us then you can watch the events yourself and then judge us.”

Mala nodded stiffly. She of course would request the footage though she didn’t think these two were lying. The blond seemed to have visibly relaxed when Hiccup took over and Mala realized that it must either pain her to talk about the events or cause her immense stress.

Astrid seemed to take a deep breath as she looked at the assembled space crew. “Now I have a question for you. The Prolium, how did you acquire it?”

“It was a gift from my people to the humans,” Telmia answered. “We gave the gift in good faith though not enough for them to power their bigger starships. We had no use of the Prolium anymore and given the Terran’s situation we agreed to help.”

“Telmia is right. The Prolium is mainly used on our smaller vessels and to supply the colonies with power.” Mala stated. “Our scientists have not been able to reverse engineer it to power our larger ships.”

“And rightly so,” Astrid huffed. “Humanity should not have had access to that technology. At least not yet on such a large scale. Hearing that you lot acquired FTL drives was shocking enough.”

“FTL drives?” Captain Mala now frowned in confusion. “We have no access to such technology. Our vessels are still equipped with the old EM drives. If we possessed FTL drives it would not have taken a five-year journey back to Terra.”

“Then how do you explain the destruction of the Mars colony?” Astrid lifted a brow.

“Historical records indicate a disease,” Mendia stated. “Though we have no clue which one was so prolific as this is the first time humans have returned to this sector of space.”

“I call a pile of crock on that,” Astrid huffed. “The records we managed to salvage from Johann after someone’s EMP grenade scrambled his rather antiquated modules…..”

“Oye! He was going to take over one of our bodies!” Hiccup defended. “Besides you beating it into a pile of scrap metal could also have scrambled the harddrives!”

“As I was saying,” Astrid huffed but elbowed Hiccup while rolling her eyes, “The data we managed to _salvage_ indicated that it was a military strike by the Rhea colony. We know that the ship that did the deed had been deployed from Titan.”

“The Council is on Rhea,” Larana muttered “And one of our shipyards is above Titan.” She then turned towards her Captain. “Ma’am it’s highly impossible that these people who have never left the planet would know this information if they did not have the data to back it up. There may be truth in their accusations.”

“But to go from a disease to a surgical strike?” Mendia muttered. “How can our history archives be so wrong?”

“History is written by the victors,” Luna spoke up grimly. “Who would be able to contest history if the losers were all dead.” This brought silence to the room as everyone digested the implications. They were left with more mysteries than they wanted and perhaps more distrust at their governing body.

“May we ask for a recess to properly digest all that you’ve said?” Mala asked. “This alone is more than what we had thought we would find here.”

“I think that would be wise though there are several things we still want answers to.” Hiccup stated.

“We’ve answered a good deal on our part yet we know very little still of your intentions,” Astrid added “So for now we will ask that you stay in this area and your rooms. They will be monitored.”

“Then may I ask just one more thing that has been bothering me?” Mala said and when both Hiccup and Astrid nodded she asked “Why were you all so shocked when the name Haddock was uttered. Surely you all couldn’t have any data on first contact with the Talarians.” Mala had pondered this for a while. That data was highly classified and the name Haddock itself was not one used frequently in the colonies. There should have been no way that….. Her musings were interrupted when Hiccup sheepishly said while rubbing the back of his neck nervously “I guess we should have handled that tidbit first, huh?”

Mala and her crew looked at Hiccup when he then said “I should probably introduce myself fully. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the 3rd at your service. My father and I believe that your sergeant might be a distant relation.” To say that everyone was shocked was putting it lightly. It was Toothless who spoke up for the first time since the talks started.

“Well now you gone and done it Hiccup. Break all the spacefarers into speechlessness why don’t you.” The black-haired male grumbled. “Now I owe Hookfang a fish.”


	17. Chapter 17

**Chapter 16**

Hiccup and Astrid left the common area to give their visitors some time to digest the information they had been handed. Toothless however chose to remain behind saying that he would take the first rotation of guard duty. Hiccup thought that there was more to it given how his friend had been sneaking looks at one of the spacefarers. He would ask him later. For now he turned to Astrid. “So what do you think?”

“They were generally shocked,” Astrid spoke as they kept walking. “I can’t be sure how space influenced their culture until we talk more. For now I would say we remain cautious around them.”

“True, we don’t know their main objective yet.” Hiccup mumbled and then asked “Say Astrid, what are we going to do with that Prolium anyways? You’ve been awfully vague about it.”

“Frankly, it could be our greatest asset or our downfall.” She stated. “Do you want to see how the salvaging operation is going?” Hiccup nodded and both he and Astrid entered one of the elevators that took them further down towards the laboratory section of the base. When the elevator doors opened again they were met with a flurry of activity in the corridors. Astrid led Hiccup to one of the main laboratories on that level and he could see Mrs. Larson bark orders at others as they coupled wires and were milling about with portable scanners. The crashed shuttle had been brought down to the labs through one of the rarely used surface supply elevators and several Berkians, including Mulch and Bucket, were busy stripping it.

“Is that safe?” Hiccup asked as metal parts were being taken off. He knew Astrid was usually in charge of salvaging operations like this but that was just for vehicles they found in the wastelands. Nothing this advanced had ever passed through these halls.

“It’s fine,” Astrid said, “I had the team take thorough scans and X-rays before they began stripping it. Some of the parts in the shuttle can be used as spares for New Berk. Our main problem was the Prolium core forcefield failing but Fishlegs solved that problem.” She gestured to a heap of cables coming out from the floor of the lab and leading into one of the isolation rooms. The sliding door was held open by the cables and Hiccup peeked in to see Fishlegs furiously typing away on the console on the wall. When Fishlegs spotted Hiccup and Astrid he hurried towards them and talked so fast Hiccup couldn’t even follow, and he normally could.

“Fish…. Fish….. Calm down,” Hiccup said as he placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Take a deep breath and go slower….. Please,”

“Right… uh… you guys, this stuff is awesome!” Fishlegs exclaimed as he stepped back a bit to let Hiccup and Astrid enter. “We managed to couple the dam’s power supply to the device to keep the forcefield active but once I started scanning this stuff, nothing came up!”

“What?” Hiccup frowned now. “Are the scanners broken?”

“No, No, Hiccup. I mean nothing came up!” Fishlegs said and then gestured towards the black liquid in the forcefield. “It’s like this stuff doesn’t exist!”

“It shouldn’t,” Astrid stated as she leaned against one of the walls with her arms crossed while glaring at the Prolium. “It really shouldn’t.”

“You seem to know a lot about it Astrid,” Hiccup realized. “How?”

“You already know that when I was transferred into my new human body it was through the help of nanites.” She raised her left hand and waved towards the console Fishlegs had been typing on. A holographic screen popped up. “The nanites still connect me somewhat to the base computer system and enhance my brain functions. I can still access historical records and this Prolium, though it wasn’t called that then, has some theoretical mention.”

Several documents showed up on the screen as Astrid began filling Hiccup and Fishlegs in. “For many centuries humans have looked to the stars. The thought of even traversing such a fast expanse of space would not be feasible in one lifetime given the conventional rockets they had at that point. The EM drives that were finally developed when the Genesis ships left the planet were big and bulky and it would have still taken humanity hundreds if not thousands of years to reach Alpha Centauri, the closest star and planetary system to Earth which is approximately 4.367 lightyears away. These EM drives would have never fit into such a small scouting ship and this may be why they ended up building colonies on Mars and Saturn’s moons. To consolidate their resources and improve their ship engines while using the colonies as bases to train personnel for longer space journeys.”

Both Hiccup and Fishlegs nodded as they absorbed the information Astrid was relaying to them. “To reach even the closest star system they would need ships capable of FTL travel, which is the problem itself.”

“H-How do you mean?” Fishlegs asked hesitantly while wringing his hands. Hiccup supposed he really wanted to grab his notebook to jot all this down.

“Traveling faster than light is impossible,” Astrid deadpanned.

“Wait, you just said…..” Hiccup was confused now.

“FTL drives don’t necessarily travel faster than light. At least not theoretically. What is hypothesized is that the drive compresses space in front of a ship and expands it behind causing the ship in question to be isolated in a sort of bubble while the universe changes around it.” Astrid said as she looked at the still confused faces of her friends. “It’s a complicated theory but there is one thing all scientists agreed on, and that is it would take a massive amount of energy from exotic matter to sustain such a machine.” She then gestured to the Prolium causing Fishlegs’ brows to shoot up towards his hairline.

“This stuff can do that?!” Fishlegs asked.

“If there is a high enough quantity, yes. The amount we got from the scouting ship isn’t nearly enough to power an FTL drive. The Talarian was right about that part.” Astrid frowned. “Still, even giving humanity this much could have been bad. We’re talking about forced technological evolution.”

At Hiccup’s blank look Astrid elaborated. “Prolium is refined Dark Matter. Even I'm not exactly certain about the refining process as it was only proposed in the 22nd century. Nothing came of it as it was deemed to be too dangerous back then.” Here Fishlegs gulped and took a step back from the forcefield containing the Prolium. “In the universe Matter and Dark Matter coexist, with matter being the building blocks of planets, suns and even ourselves. Dark Matter on the other hand can be seen as negatively charged and can only be observed through a single physical force which is gravity. Dark Matter in this form can be considered stable. Prolium is a refined form of this Dark Matter and is very volatile and unstable. I don’t know how the Talarians harvested it but if this stuff comes into contact with any Matter it would release an astronomical amount of energy. Hence why it could be used for FTL drives.”

“That’s….. WOW,” Was all Hiccup could utter as he looked at the small amount of black liquid in a new light. He now realized why Astrid almost went bananas at the crash site. Another thing dawned on him as he looked at his girlfriend “You’re going to use it to build a weapon aren’t you?”

“Not a weapon per se,” Astrid muttered. “Just a precaution.”

“But… but…” Hiccup sputtered while Astrid gave him a particular look.

“Hiccup, you and I both know that something is coming. Whether good or bad I would like us to be prepared.” She said as she took her boyfriend’s hand. “These people….. They have technology beyond what we have at the moment. I rather not use the Prolium in such a way but if it means protecting my family then so be it.” Hiccup blushed at Astrid’s passionate declaration while Astrid gave him a peck on the cheek. “Besides, with your negotiating skills I’m sure it wouldn’t come to that,” She then proceeded to lightheartedly poke Hiccup in the stomach.

Fishlegs groaned as Astrid and Hiccup were getting sappy. They completely forgot that he was still in the room. All of the Berkians were used to it by now and just ignored them when they became this sappy. The Chief was just itching to throw them a wedding too and was near the verge of telling his son to just pop the question already.


	18. Chapter 18

**Chapter 17**

The next day was another meeting with the space-farers but this one was slightly different. Captain Mala had requested that only she, the Talarian, and Sergeant Haddock should be present for this discussion. They were led to a small conference room where Stoick and Astrid were already waiting.

“Is there really such a need for secrecy?” Stoick had to ask and Mala nodded.

“It’s best if fewr people know about the events that will be mentioned here. Even I was shocked when the Sergeant explained it fully to me last night.” she stated while stressing the importance of keeping it a secret. All eyes then turned to the Sergeant who was seated between his Captain and the Talarian. He cleared his voice with a cough and began.

“It’s been speculated by the civilians and lower ranked officers alike that I was part of the Sirius mission. The first mission to Titan where we discovered the Talarian race. Almost all information has been redacted by the Council when I rejoined human civilization.” The man began. “The rumor appears to have no real basis as the Sirius mission was more than a century ago but it is in fact true. On record I am 47 years old. Mentally I am around 190.”

“Excuse me what?!” Stoick couldn’t help but bellow and stand up. He flushed red and sheepishly sat back down as Hiccup choked at the statement while Astrid’s eyes narrowed.

“Nanotechnology?” Astrid asked herself aloud but then muttered a “No”, “Android, no. Scans indicated fully human.” She frowned harder. “Cloning, a possibility,”

“You think he’s a clone?” Hiccup frowned but the Sergeant just shook his head negatively. Meanwhile Astrid was tapping her finger on the table in a steady rhythm as she wracked her brain. It seemed the space-farers weren’t going to say how until the other side contemplated the situation themselves for a few minutes.

“Time Travel?” Hiccup asked, causing the Talarian’s eyes to shift towards him briefly before quickly shifting back. Astrid caught it only by accident.

“Not time travel per se, but something close to it,” She muttered and then suggested “Time dilation perhaps?” When the Sergeant nodded, seemingly pleased for them to get it so quickly, she frowned again. “I have to admit, the concept still seems pretty far fetched. Though I’m sure we are all curious to hear how this happened now.”

“This story starts just after the establishment of the Rhea colony,” the Sergeant stated. “Rhea is Saturn’s second largest moon and is tidally locked in phase with the planet. The moon itself has a surface composition that suggested largely water in the form of ice rocks. The colony was placed on the sunlit side of the moon while mining drones were sent out to harvest the water for the colonists. There was also talk of sending miners to the sister moons Dione and Tethys if supplies ran low in the future. But since Rhea itself was to be the primary provider of water for the future colonies then setting a shipyard on the surface would cause a lot of loss in natural resources.”

“So Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, was chosen as the location for the shipyard which would operate in the Moon’s low orbit,” The Sergeant continued. “Titan was not meant to be colonized since it’s atmosphere, which is largely nitrogen, and dense liquid hydrocarbon lakes would be detrimental for long term habitation unless expensive measures were taken. The Sirius mission objective was to simply place the initial space station parts in orbit resonance around the moon which would then be used to build outwards to create the shipyard. Never would we have thought to discover another alien race at that time.”

“Hold on, there is something I don’t get,” Stoick said with a frown. “Why couldn’t you just have placed the shipyard above Rhea?”

“I can answer that,” Captain Mala said as she glanced at the Chief before asking for a holographic star chart. Astrid pulled one up above the table and Mala asked her to zoom into the area encompassing Rhea and Titan. “The creation of a shipyard in itself is an arduous task. The Genesis ships had limited resources in storage after such a long journey according to historical records, hence why Rhea was established as a water reservoir. For a shipyard of that magnitude to function miner robots would have to have been sent to nearby asteroids or smaller moons in orbit around the planet to get the required building materials. The Sirius space station that Sergeant Haddock and his team had been charged with setting up was not only the base for the shipyard but also boasted several smaller refineries within different sections to refine and create the components we needed. An EM drive of a Genesis ship had to be gutted to operate these refineries as the station's solar sails could not collect enough sunlight. Refining resources mined from space would release a lot of radiation. The placement of the station was for safety reasons primarily. If there was any kind of leak or explosion then the Rhea colony would not be affected by the radiation, sulphur exposure or other waste. It would be a health risk if any of those were to mix with the minable water reservoirs. Rhea does not have much of an atmosphere so if an explosion did occur the debris would not burn up.”

“I’m afraid Captain, that history has been too kind,” the Sergeant spoke up. “The Solar sails never even made it to full deployment status, though I can’t say I regret being on that mission,”

_Year: 23XX (2 years after Rhea colony establishment)_   
_Location: Sirius space station (under construction), Above Titan_

_“Haddock, how do the Starboard photovoltaic arrays look?” The question came over the radio as one Spencer Haddock sat in the control room to monitor the progression._

_“Sensors show you are right on target for interception,” Haddock answered as he looked out the viewport to see three people in spacesuits guiding the new module into its docking port. “Target deviation is less than 1mm.”_

_“Ha Ha I’ll be glad once this job is over.” One said through the radio. “What about you Haddock? You’ve been stuck here longer than any of us. Rhea’s coming along nicely, they’ve even started making a park for recreation now in a detached sphere. I can’t wait to take my daughter there and it’s all thanks to the C-type asteroid mining.”_

_“True, but this scenery grows on you,” Spencer joked as he looked through the left viewport to see the hazy yellow atmosphere of Titan._

_“At least if you’re staying longer you’ll have more power now. The gravity wheel can only supply so much,” The astronauts over the radio joked. “It would be a welcome relief once this place becomes self-powered.”_

_“Hey, did you hear the latest mining report?” Another astronaut asked. “They identified several M-type asteroids in Saturn’s outer orbit. The yield is at least ten times the ore we are currently mining from the S-types. Is that why this array construction is being rushed now?”_

_“Seems like it,” Another answered. “They want this place fully operational by the time the ore shipments arrive._

_“Docking successful,” Spencer stated as he typed something into the onboard computer. “Diverting power from the living quarters to rotate the array.” From the viewport he could see the solar panels turning towards the direction of Sol. Once that was done the diverted power was restored to its original designation. “What is the situation with the solar sails?” He asked over the radio._

_“Situation is green, over, Solar sails ready for deployment.” One of the Astronauts outside reported. Spencer nodded though no one could see him. Solar sails were supposed to stretch from the port-photovoltaic arrays to the starboard ones, traversing the inner diameter of the gravity wheel like a corkscrew. On the starboard array a mushroom-shaped sail was to expand from the end as well. The sails were there to catch extra solar winds from Sol and to also serve as a magnetic sail, using Saturn’s magnetic field to increase the station’s propulsion and rotation, increasing the artificial gravity and also using it to power the systems that had been offline until now._

_“Release the sails,” Haddock ordered. His systems indicated that the port-side sails were unfolding nicely. The starboard sails he could see opening now in all its majestic golden glory. The starboard sail itself deployed in four parts, each membrane part was held together by three support cables, with the station serving as the payload being in the center._

_“Extension moving smoothly,” one of the men outside commented over the radio as three-fourth of the starboard sail was fully deployed. “It looks like we’ll be your transport home once this operation is done,”_

_Things however took a turn for the worst when one of the fully deployed support cables snapped and slammed into two astronauts._

_“Mayday Mayday!” One shouted over the comm. “Oxygen tank ruptured!”_

_One of his comrades answered the distress call as they were attempting a rescue mission while trying to dodge the crumbling sail, but Spencer himself had to act quickly as the loose cable was heading straight for his command center. There was nothing he could do for the men outside as they scrambled to save their crewmember. Here, nearly zero gravity was his friend as he pushed out of his chair with enough momentum to reach the door behind him. The scrape of the large cable could be heard against the space station as he saw a small crack appear on the viewport just as the door closed. The scraping continued and from the station’s corridor viewports he could see the loose cable drifting wildly in the vacuum of space. This wasn’t good as it was drifting right towards the port sails that were still in process of extending along the bulk of the station. There was an audible groan in the mechanics of the station as the cable entangled itself with the port sails while now spinning taunt across the station’s bulk diameter. This wouldn’t be good for anyone and with another push in near zero gravity Spencer headed in the direction of the airlock._


	19. Chapter 19

**Chapter 18**

_The groaning continued as Spencer proceeded to the nearest airlock. On his way he had managed to override the gravity wheel’s rotation from one of the consoles, buying everyone some time as that would slow the whole station’s rotation._

_“What’s the situation out there?” The Sergeant asked as he quickly donned a spacesuit and one of the oxygen tanks._

_“Mikey’s losing oxygen fast! He’s falling below 50 percent!” Came over the coms and Haddock directed them to meet him halfway from the airlock as he grabbed another attachable oxygen tank. The airlock opened at the push of a button and he glided out while being secured to a titanium tetter. He managed to land on the side of the station and he could see the others coming towards him. The guy was losing oxygen quickly so they would never make it back to their vessel nor to the ship’s airlock itself. His colleagues were using the emergency thrusters of their suits to propel forward while trying to keep the leak closed with their hands but the cable had had enough force to cut a large gash through the tank. They could never stop all the air from escaping._

_“Below 35 percent!” One of them said over the coms as Spencer was nearly there._

_“Hold him. I’m going to switch the tank,” Haddock ordered which caused a whole other set of chaos._

_“Are you crazy?” the astronaut on the left said once they had met up. “You can’t switch a tank in a vacuum!”_

_“Watch me!” Spencer said as he shoved the full oxygen tank at the man that had just commented. He grabbed Mikey’s arm where the spacesuit’s terminal was and ordered “Hold your breath. I’m going to eject the tank and close all valves.”_

_Mikey’s eyes widened as the man knew what that would do. Ejecting the damaged tank would cause all oxygen to be sucked from the suit through the open valves. Though there was a failsafe where the valves closed when depressurisation happened the oxygen in the suit would be gone in mere seconds. The switch had to happen in these few seconds otherwise he would asphyxiate._

_Mikey nodded and took a few deep gulps of air before holding his breath. The sergeant wasted no time in ejecting the tank. You could see the strain even that small depressurisation caused on the man just before the valves closed and the spare tank was mounted with efficiency. Even in those few seconds it took to connect the new tank to the suit Mikey had already been turning a shade of blue._

_“You are one crazy man, Haddock,” One of the other men said over coms as the suit accepted the new tank and their friend was saved._

_“Get him inside the station,” Haddock ordered as he told the men he would go to survey the damage the cable had done._

_“Alek can take Mikey while I help you,” The other man said as both knew that even with the tools they had on hand this was not a one-person job. “Jacobson by the way,” The man introduced as they surveyed the damage. On the outside it was more extensive than they imagined. The crack in the control center window was minor but it might still cause depressurisation over time if left unchecked. Luckily Spencer had sealed off that room from the rest of the station but that would mean they would have to use the backup systems to control the station until that window crack was fixed._

_The sails however looked much worse than the crack. The fourth starboard solar sail had only two cables holding it causing it to flap in the vacuum of space. The loose cable had been wound around the station, but not before puncturing one of the traversing sails. There was no way they would be able to fix that sail so their options were limited._

_In the end they decided to use their plasma knives to cut the wound-up cable into segments before it caused more damage and remove it like so. The damaged sails were also ejected and pushed to burn up in Titan’s atmosphere. When Spencer and Jacobson were done they were met at the airlock by Alek who relayed to them another problem. With the solar sails they had now and the gravity wheel the station wouldn’t have enough power to sustain them or the new modules they had added. They could evacuate to the ship they had arrived at the station with and return to Rhea with Haddock in tow but that would mean leaving the station in a decaying orbit around Titan. By the time a new mission could be sent out with materials the station might not even be there anymore causing them to lose precious materials and two years worth of work._

_Getting out of the spacesuits was a hassle even if they were an upgrade from those used some decades ago. The oxygen tanks were connected to the station again where they would be filled to capacity by the computer system. For right now the men regrouped in the communal area of the station._

_Mikey, who had some color back in his cheeks floated from the medbay module to meet up with the others. He gratefully gave Spencer a hug upon seeing him. “You are one hell of a space cowboy Haddock,” The man grinned. “They didn’t teach that in basic.”_

_“Some things you gotta learn out in the field I guess,” Jacobson laughed and then he got serious “But Haddock we owe you one. Mikey’s mom would have probably killed us if something happened to her baby.”_

_“Do you have to bring my ma into this?!” Mikey groaned._

_“Yes, seeing as the woman marched into our basic training while brandishing a frying pan.” Alek deadpanned. “No one in our graduating class is going to let you forget that.” This caused Mikey to groan more._

_There was laughter all around before things got serious again. All four men were floating in the communal area as they tried to think of a way to save the station. Jacobson was actually the highest-ranking officer on board, with Alek and Mikey both being Privates, but he deferred to Spencer in this instance._

_“A Commander knows how to make use of all his resources and advantages and right now Haddock you are our best bet. You’ve been here the longest and know the station like the back of your hand. Is there any way we can save it?”_

_“The gravity wheel was enough to power primary systems but the solar sails were to be used to power the new modules and side thrusters. 35 percent of the sails are damaged so we can shut down unnecessary sections of the station to conserve power but it won’t be enough.”_

_“The thrusters won’t engage?” Alek asked with a frown. “It would place us in a decaying orbit towards Titan._

_“We are already in a decaying orbit but still in the safe zone,” Spencer stated as he gave the men a tablet to show them the change in orbit since he’s been here. “Titan only gets 10 percent of sunlight at this distance. There was never a chance to fire up the side thrusters until these new modules could have been delivered.”_

_“And I’m guessing the time it takes to manufacture new sails on Rhea and ship them here to install will be tight.” Jacobson muttered. “The station will most likely already be past the orbital point of no return.”_

_“There is a way but you guys might not like it,” Haddock stated as all eyes turned to him now. “Your ship’s engine. If we hotwire it into the station we may have enough power to activate the thrusters and get the station back onto its primary orbital path. Once there we’d have another two years to fix the sails.”_

_“But…. But…. our ship is a 1st Gen rust bucket. There is no way it would be compatible with the station’s engines.” Alek proclaimed._

_“Not necessarily,” Mikey spoke up. “We could supply the energy to the thrusters from our ship in small bursts otherwise the engine could overheat and we’d have nothing. It’s a viable plan, the only problem is that it will take at least a month to get the station to its initial orbit if we do one to two bursts a day. The problem of food is now in play as we all will have to stay here until the job is done.”_

_“Food isn’t going to be a problem. The hydroponics module wasn’t damaged.” Spencer told them. “If it’s for four people there should be enough food to last two weeks, three if we ration. By then I can have several more hydroponic banks set up and growing greens.”_

_“Well then, let’s get to work. We have a ship to hotwire and a station to save,” Jacobson declared._


End file.
